NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

Even before Telangana couldcompletely recover from thehavoc caused by the deep dep-ression on 13 October, a freshLow pressure area is expectedto form over central Bay ofBengal around 19th October,bringing in its wake heavyrains for 2 days in the state.

As per the IndianMeteorological Department,the low pressure area is likelyto become more marked dur-ing the subsequent 24 hoursafter October19. This would bethe 11th such weather systembetween June and October 19,as at least 10 systems haveformed over the Bay of Bengal

this rainy season. Nearly 50%of rainfall so far in the state thismonsoon has been due tothese 10 weather systems,according to the authorities.While August witnessed 5such weather systems,September saw 2 and June,July, October saw 1 each

respectively.The low pressure that would

form on 19th in the Bay ofBengal will bring about rainsacross the state, while southTelangana, just belowHyderabad, is expected toexperience severe rainfall.

HYDERABAD, SATURDAY OCTOBER 17, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

www.dailypioneer.com

RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 3 ISSUE 2*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

@TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneerFollow us on:

MONEY 8AFTER PETROL, DIESEL DEMANDRETURNS TO PRE-COVID LEVELS

ANALYSIS 7DFASDFASDFASD

FASDFDSF

SPORTS 12MI REGAIN TOP SPOT

}CHANDINI IN A HAPPY AND

COMFORTABLE SPACE

Page 11

8

‘No exclusivity’clause dampensrailway route privatisation

5

Modi changedpolitical culture,says JP Nadda

2

Unleashing thepotential ofMissionKarmayogi

Shaurya Chakra awardee Balwinder Singh, who had fought againstterrorism for years, was shot dead by two unidentified men in

Punjab's Tarn Taran district today. He and his family had remained onterrorists' hit list for years. Sources claim the 62-year-old was attackedinside his home and took five bullets. BalwinderSingh was rushed to a hospital, where he wasdeclared brought dead, sources added. "MrSingh was murdered today. Two people wereinvolved in the attack, one of whom went up tohis house and shot him. We have filed a caseand it is being investigated," SeniorSuperintendent of Police Tarn Taran DhrumanNimbale said.

SHAURYA CHAKRA AWARDEEBALWINDER SINGH SHOT DEAD

ICICI BANK IS DOWN, MAKINGTRANSACTIONS FAIL FOR MANY

Chinese Covid-19 vaccine candidate -- BBIBP-CorV -- that is expectedto completely inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is safe and elicits an

antibody response, a study published in The Lancet has found. Aprevious clinical trial reported similar results for a differentvaccine that is also based on inactivated whole SARS-CoV-2 virus, but in that study the vaccine was onlytested on people aged under 60 years.The latest studyreported in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journalincluded participants aged between 18 and 80 years, andfound that antibody responses were induced in allrecipients. Participants aged 60 and over were slower torespond, taking 42 days before antibodies were detected in all recipientscompared with 28 days for participants aged 18-59.

India's gasoil sales rose in October for the first time since the nationimposed COVID-19 restrictions in late March, preliminary data shows,

signalling a pick-up in industrial activity ahead of key festivals Diesel salesby the country's three state fuel retailers rose 8.8% year on year in the firsthalf of October, according to provisional data compiled by Indian Oil CorpIOC.NS, the country's biggest refiner and fuel retailer. Sales of gasoil, whichaccount for about two fifths of the country's overall fuel demand, totalled2.65 million tonnes, up more than 24% from the previousmonth. Rising diesel sales in the world's third-biggestoil consumer and importer would help refiners thathave had to cut crude-processing runs during thecoronavirus crisis, said an official at one of the staterefiners, though he cautioned that diesel sales growth could be temporary.

ICICI Bank is down and netbanking, debit card transactions, as well asUPI transactions are not working for many customers in India. Many

affected customers have raised complaints against the outage on socialmedia. While several people are not able to make any transactionsthrough ICICI Bank's net banking service, some of them are not evenreceiving a one-time password (OTP) for their transactions. It's possiblethat this is because of a sudden increase in demand thanks to e-commerce sales; or it could be some other matter entirely, which willplay havoc with shoppers trying to takeadvantage of these sales, as ICICI is one ofthe biggest banks in India. At the time ofwriting, the ICICI Bank support team is yet torespond to customer complaints.

CHINA'S COVID VACCINE IS SAFE,PROMPTS ANTIBODY RESPONSE

OCTOBER DIESEL SALES RISEABOVE PRE-COVID LEVELS

HYDERABAD

WEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated October 16, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Ashwin & Shukla Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Pratipada: 09:08 pm

Nakshatram: Chitra: 11:51 am

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 09:07 am – 10:34 am

Yamagandam: 01:28 pm – 02:55 pm

Varjyam: 04:45 pm – 06:09 pm

Gulika: 06:13 am - 07:40 am

Good Time: 11:35 am – 01:00 pm

Amritakalam: 06:17 am – 07:41 am

Abhijit Muhurtham:

11:38 am – 12:24 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: Scattered thunderstormsTemp: 28/22Humidity: 70%Sunrise: 06.09 amSunset: 05.52 pm

PNS n HYDERABAD

No country in the world isdone with the Covid-19 pan-demic, which, in its 'first wave',has already affected 39 millionpeople and claimed 1.1 lives asof Friday. Still, there is omnioustalk now that the much-feared'second wave' has already set in,with almost all nations acrossEurope as well as the US brac-ing up for worse period ahead.The worst part is that the vastmajority of countries aredeclaring more cases each daynow than they were during thefirst wave earlier this year,according to reports.

Globally, as of 16 October2020, there have been38,619,674 confirmed cases ofCOVID-19, including1,093,522 deaths, reported toWHO. The US CDC has pro-jected 2,40,000 Covid deaths inUS by November 7. In the UK,cases are accelerating onceagain, with the city of Liverpool

plunged into lockdown and theGovernment forced to intro-duce a new three-tier system oflocal measures. In Ireland, anationwide ban on visits tohomes or gardens was imposedthis week, with exceptions forthose caring for children orvulnerable people. In outdoorsettings away from homes or

gardens, up to six people fromno more than two householdscan gather while keeping socialdistance. In Germany, theheads of Germany’s 16 federalstates on Wednesday agreed onnew uniform restrictions tocontain outbreaks in coron-avirus hotspots: in cities andregions seeing more than 35

infections per 100,000 peopleover the space of 75 days.

Most of the governments ofEuropean countries are battlingthe second wave of coron-avirus, with tough measuresbeing implemented in 20 main-land nations. For instances, acurfew comes into force in theParis region and eight othercities deemed on “maximumalert” from midnight onSaturday. The curfew, from 9pm to 6 am, will be imposed forat least four weeks but could beextended until 1 December.Bars are already shut in areasof “maximum alert”, while

restaurants will remain open,but only until 9pm. France'sreimposition of a state of healthemergency and the introduc-tion of curfews are the conse-quence of a "sudden and spec-tacular acceleration" in thespread of the coronavirus virus,the country's Prime Ministersaid on Thursday. In Austria,

a “mini lockdown” has beenimposed on the Kuchl region inthe Land Salzburg state, wherepublic events are currentlycompletely banned, visits tocare homes forbidden, andrestaurants have to shut at5pm.

In Belgium, shops must shutat 10 pm, cafes 11pm, and

restaurants at 1am. Maximum10 people at a table in a restau-rant, four people at a table incafes. No more than four peo-ple (except the under-12s andthose living under the sameroof) may gather together,either at home or in publicspaces.

Brace up for ‘second wave' of COVID now!Majority of countries are declaring more cases each day now than they were during the first wave

INDIA COMPLACENT STOCKS FALLING

The health authorities in India, however, seemto be complacent. Citing the winter season

and festivities around the corner, the NITI Aayogon Tuesday warned that the second peak ofCovid-19 is impending over the country, withoutindicating whether Unlock 5 or other measureswould be rolled back.

Dr VK Paul, head of the national Covid-19 TaskForce, cautioned at a press briefing that India willsee another "storm of Covid-19 cases". However,the mortality will be much lower as ourhealthcare system is now prepared for the fight,he added.

According to reports, US and European stocks fell onsigns that the spread of coronavirus is gathering

pace, while a rally in German debt pushed yields on theregional haven to the lowest level since the markettumult in March. The benchmark S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Compositeended 0.5 per cent lower. The declines were far greaterin Europe, where the region-wide Stoxx 600 slid 2.1per cent. Stocks trading in Frankfurt and Paris bothdropped more than 2 per cent, while London’s FTSE100 declined 1.7 per cent. This follows new restrictionsin France and the UK in an attempt to slow the spreadof the virus, which is accelerating across Europe.

A person in PPE kit supervising a theatre in Mumbai.....

Heavy rains again! Another low pressure forming, rains from Oct 19

NAMRATA SRIVASTAVAn HYDERABAD

The National Testing Agency(NTA) declared the results ofthe National Eligibility cumEntrance Test (NEET) onOctober 16, with seven candi-dates from Telangana and eightfrom Andhra Pradesh makingit to the Top 50 list of theMedical examination. Theexam was held on September13, and again for COVID-affected students on October14.

The examination was con-ducted without any glitch in3,862 centres across the nationin 155 cities. In all 15,97,435students registerd for the

examination, of which13,66,945 appeared and7,71,500 qualified for the seats.A total of 4,27,943 female can-

didates and 1 transgender can-didate qualified for the exam-ination.

Metro offers 40%festive discount PNS n HYDERABAD

For the first time since incep-tion, L&T HRML is offeringfestive discounts to HyderabadMetro Rail passengers. As partof the Metro 'Survarna Offer',L&THRML announced a 40 %discount on every Metro jour-ney from 17-31 October. Thediscount is applicable for usersof smart card, paper & digitalQR.

Metro also announced 50%cashback on trips using smart

cards from Bathukamma toSankranti, starting 17October-16th January 2021.To avail of the cashback offer,one could pay for 14 and get20 trips; pay for 20 and get 30trips; or, pay for 40 & get 60trips.

HMRL MD NVS Reddy,along with L&T HMRL MDKVB Reddy, shared details ofthe discounts, and said that,starting November 1,L&THMRL trip offers wouldbe available in T-saavari app.

Bodies of fiveof familyrecoveredPNS n HYDERABAD

The bodies of five membersof a family were found hereon Friday, two days afterfloods triggered by heavyrains swept them away, policesaid.

Tragedy struck the eightmember family of MohdAdul Taher Qureshi afterthey came out of their houseat Ali Nagar here to shift toa neighbouring apartmentdue to rising water levelsnear their home, Qureshi'sson-in-law MohammedOmer said.

Eight of them were washedaway in strongcurrents, whileTaher Qureshi managed toreturn home.

Torched tribal girl succumbs,cops blame it on hospital lapsesPNS n HYDERABAD

A 13-year-old tribal girl, whowas set on fire, allegedly by heremployer at his home forresisting a rape attempt, diedhere on Thursday night whileundergoing treatment for near-ly a month, police said.

The incident occurred inKhammam town onSeptember 18 after the girl, a

domestic help in the man'shouse, warded off his attemptto rape her.

"She died on Thursday nightwhile undergoing treatment ina private hospital inHyderabad," Khammam com-missioner of police TafseerIqbal told PTI on Friday.

He said some of the Sectionsunder the Indian Penal Codeunder which the accused was

booked would be altered.He said Section 307 (attempt

to murder) would now bealtered to Section 302 (mur-der).

Though the incident tookplace on September 18, policecame to know about it onOctober 5 after she was admit-ted to a private hospital herefor treatment of burns.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The CBI has recovered assetsworth Rs 190 crore during itssearches against six companiesbooked for targeting Microsoftcustomers through a technicalsupport scam, an investigationwhich has received praise fromUnited States' Department ofJustice, officials said Friday.

During its searches onSeptember 17, the agency alsoseized gold worth Rs 55 lakh,cash totaling Rs 25 lakh and a

plethora of digital evidenceindicating alleged nefariousactivities of the six accusedcompanies, based in Delhi,Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh,

Spokesperson RK Gaur said ina statement on Friday.

The CBI is collaboratingwith US agencies and author-ities of other friendly countries

against the fraudsters whoallegedly took remote controlof computers of users by send-ing them a pop-up message ofmalware presence on their sys-tems, Gaur said.

Once the user dialled thenumber given on the pop-up,he was directed at call centreexecutives who demandedhuge sums of money to cleanthe non-existent malware andalso installed unnecessarydamaging softwares of theusers' computers, he said.

The central agency had con-ducted searches at the premis-es of accused companies --New Delhi-based SoftwillInfotech Private Limited andSaburi TLC WorldwideServices Pvt. Ltd, Jaipur-basedInnovana Think labs Limitedand Systweak Software PrivateLimited, Noida-basedBenovellient TechnologiesPrivate Limited, Noida andGurugram-based SaburiGlobal Services Pvt Ltd.

CBI unearths ‘Microsoft’ tech support fraud

Nayini on ventilator supportPNS n HYDERABAD

Former home minister ofTelangana, Nayini NarasimhaReddy is reportedly in a 'high-ly critical condition' and ispresently on ventilator sup-port. He was admitted toApollo Hospitals three daysago, after he developed post-Covid complications. Doctorsare treating him in theAdvanced Critical Care Unit atJubilee Hills Apollo Hospital.His condition is critical andprognosis is very bad. Theteam of doctors at Apollo is

trying hard to stabilise his con-dition further.

The CBI is working with USagencies and authoritiesof other friendly countriesagainst the fraudsterswho allegedly tookremote control ofcomputers of users

This would be the11th suchweather systembetween Juneand Oct 19, as atleast 10 systemshave formed overthe Bay of Bengalthis rainy season.

n As of 16 October 2020, therehave been 38,619,674confirmed cases of COVID-19,including 1,093,522 deaths,reported to WHO

n The US CDC has projected2,40,000 Covid deaths in US byNovember 7

Tummala Snikitha- 3 -rank Anatha Parakrama

{

TRIPS OFFER WITH 50% CASHBACK

Continued from page 1

Pay for 14 & get 20 Trips: Validity – 30 days

Pay for 20 & get 30 Trips: Validity – 45 days

Pay for 40 & get 60 Trips: Validity – 60 days

S.No Product Pay for Free Total Trips Validity

Trips Trips to Customer (days)

1 10 trips 7 3 10 30

2 20 trips 14 6 20 30

3 30 trips 20 10 30 45

4 45 trips 30 15 45 45

5 60 trips 40 20 60 60

22 2

22

2

2

TS3RANK

11RANK

7 TS, 8 AP students make it toTop 50 list in NEET entrance

SKymet Rain Fallfall(mm/day)-20201020

36N

33N30N

27N

24N21N

18N15N12N9N

6N65E 70E 75E 80E 85E 90E 95E 100E

PNS n HYDERABAD

With 43,916 more tests con-ducted in the last 24 hours,Telangana has crossed the one-lakh COVID tests per millionpopulation and become theseventh Indian state to achievethe milestone, officials said onFriday. The state's figure is1,00,670 samples tested permillion population. Thenational average is 65,772.Delhi tops the list of states with1,93,399 tests per million pop-ulation.

The Telangana governmentinitially came under a lot ofcriticism for not doing enoughtests, but ramped up the num-bers subsequently. The state iscurrently conducting 40,000-50,000 tests a day which, offi-cials say, is much higher thanthe daily target of 5,600 per dayand the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) bench-mark of 140 tests per millionper day.

The state has so far conduct-ed 37,46,963 tests. There wasno data available as to how

many of them were RapidAntigen tests. The state has 17government-run laboratories,44 private laboratories and1,076 Rapid Antigen test cen-tres. Out of 43,916 tests con-ducted during the last 24 hoursending 8 pm on Thursday,41,698 were conducted in gov-ernment laboratories andRapid Antigen test centres.

The state reported 1,554new cases, taking its tally to2,19,224. Of these 23,203 areactive, including 19,251 per-sons in home isolation. Asmany as 1,435 people recov-

ered from the virus during theperiod, taking the total recov-eries to 1,94,653. The state'srecovery rate climbed furtherto 88.79 per cent as against thenational average of 87.5 percent. Seven more people suc-cumbed to the virus during theperiod, pushing the death tollto 1,256. The fatality rateremains at 0.57 per cent asagainst the national average of1.5 per cent. Officials said thepercentage of deaths due toCOVID-19 was 44.96 whileremaining 55.04 had comor-bidities.

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond Block, Lumbini Rockdale, Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082. Telangana. Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, Plot No.19, IDA Balanagar , Hyderbad-500037, Medchal -Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Chief Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any

damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only. Readers are advised and requested to verify and seek appropriate advice to satisfy themselves about the veracity of any kind of advertisement before

responding to any contents published in this newspaper. The printer, publisher, editor and any employee of the Pioneer Group's will not be held responsible for any kind of claim made by the advertisers of the products & services and shall not be made responsible for any kind of loss, consequences and further product-related damages on such advertisements.

hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 17, 2020

EGG

RATES

GOLD

` Rs.61, 600 (1kg)

600

HYDERABAD 490

VIJAYAWADA 529

VISAKHAPATNAM 522

RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `44..9900

SILVER

HYDERABAD

BULLION RATES

`//110000

CHICKEN

RATES

Dressed/With Skin `186

Without Skin `211

Broiler at Farm `128

`//KKGG

(IN HYDERABAD)

` 52, 940 (10 gm)

` 1190

The first piece of thisseries (October 10), wehad seen that the lead-

ership development pathwayof administrators is hourglassshaped, not funnel-shaped asit is in the long-standing pro-fessions (e.g. medicine andengineering).

In the lower bulb of thehourglass, administrators gainexperience by making deci-sions in direct, firsthand, con-tact-with-reality situations. Inthe neck of the hourglass, theylearn what causes what, andwhy (theory).

Finally, having learnt toconnect the right experiencewith the right theory, admin-istrators use experience-basedintuition to make decisions.

The storehouse of experi-ences in the lower bulb is tacit- the know-how is acquired bya process of learning by doing,and resides in the minds andhands of the administrators -and situated - know-how isspecific in time and place.Contemporary training cours-es are largely oriented totransfer explicit technicalknowledge or managerialknowledge, and little attention

is paid to explicate the tacitand situated aspects of expe-rience-based decision-mak-ing.

As decision-making byadministrators is based ontacit and situated experiences,they are unable to makeexplicit the how and why oftheir own proficient deci-sions. The challenge is how todocument the tacit and situ-ation elements of experiencesfor the purpose of training.

For trainers the best way isto observe the "ways of talk-ing, rituals, implicit protocols,routines, relational strategies,character traits and virtues", aswell as the "practice of astute,sensitive and skilful" admin-istrators to generate accountsof proficient administrativepractices (e.g. case studies,narratives).

Such contextually rich anddetailed accounts of practicewould enable administratorsto judge the extent to which

there are sufficient points ofsimilarity with the currentproblem for it to be useful.One of the most difficultproblems that administratorsface when trying to draw onunderstandings or ideas devel-oped in a different context isthat of how transferable theyare: What is unique to a par-ticular time and place, andwhat is more general? It isonly depth of contextualisingdetail that will allow this kindof judgment to be made. Deepsituational understanding isessential input when dealingwith new problems and cir-cumstances. In the neck of the

hourglass, administratorslargely design policies. Policiesare general interventions thatare not specific to time andplace. In other words, policiesrequire an understanding ofuniversal laws and principlesof the domain. These are pro-vided by theory. Theories aregeneral statements of whatcauses things to happen, andwhy. Let us use the what andwhy of auction theory andhow it can be used to preparepolicies.

This year's Nobel Prize inEconomics was given to PaulMilgrom and Robert Wilsonfor their research on auction

theory. Traditionally, a coal-field would be sold to thehighest bidder. Auction theo-ry tells us that bidders takeinto consideration both whatthey know themselves andwhat they believe other bid-ders to know. They are wor-ried about the winner's curse- that is, about paying toomuch and losing out.

Paul Milgrom found that

people underbid by less in so-called English auctions, inwhich prices start low and areraised, than in Dutch auctions,where they start high and arereduced. This insight showsthat revenue is unlikely to bemaximised by relying on thestandard method of allocatingcoalfields to the highest bid-ders. Auction theory providesa different auction format (setof rules for bidding and pre-dicting final prices) that is use-ful for maximising revenuefrom auctions of coalfields,mines, etc.

Suppose there are othergoals in addition to revenuemaximisation. These couldbe to protect the environment(for coalfield auction) orencourage technological inno-vation (telecom spectrum auc-tion).

For achieving broader soci-etal benefits, Milgrom andWilson invented new auctionformats, which are again use-

ful for administrators duringpolicy-design.

In the upper bulb, admin-istrators develop the capabil-ity to connect ideas and expe-riences (their own and oth-ers), hitherto thought to beunrelated.

Warren Buffet's confidante,Charlie Munger, succinctlyexplains how thishappens:"Well, the first rule isthat you can't really know any-thing if you just rememberisolated facts (or experiences)and try and bring 'em back. Ifthe facts don't hang togetheron a latticework of theory, youdon't have them in a usableform. You've got to have mod-els in your head. And you'vegot to array your experienceboth vicarious and direct onthis latticework of models. …You've got to hang experienceon a latticework of models inyour head."

Such expertise is gainedafter years of practice, and

these leaders develop con-centration (or spikes) in a fewdomains. Even though thespiky leaders have a solidgrounding in all aspects ofadministration, they havepracticed in becoming thebest in the world in their areasof strength, even if that meansthat they are average in otherleadership competencies.

Thus, administratorsrequire a different sort ofcapacity building. Broadly,they have to be exposed to thetacit and situated elements ofdecision-making, learn theright theories, and combinethe experience plus theory tomake intuitive decisions thatare not only good, but bril-liant.

(Author has a PhD fromthe USA and a DLitt from

Kanchi University. The article is based on his

research and practice andviews are personal)

DR. SAMEER SHARMA

The storehouse of experiences in thelower bulb is tacit - the know-how isacquired by a process of learning bydoing, and resides in the minds and handsof the administrators -and situated -know-how is specific in time and place

Unleashing the potential of Mission Karmayogi

PNS n HYDERABAD

Several projects in the stateacross the districts are over-flowing with flood water. In thelast 35 years, Karimnagar hasnot witnessed heavy rainfall.Even though there was a min-imum rainfall recorded in thedistrict for past few days, withthe heavy downpour occurringin the other regions, heavyinflow of water has been reach-ing several projects and fillingthem.

More than 50 per cent of theminor irrigation tanks acrossthe State, both in Krishna andGodavari river basins, havebeen overflowing followingcopious inflows in the wake ofheavy rains in the State in thepast few days. At least 24,192

of the 43,412 tanks are over-flowing indicating saturation ofground water in these areas.While Sangareddy andMahbubnagar top the listunder Krishna basin, Warangaland Nirmal registered maxi-mum number of overflowing

tanks under Godavari basin.In Rangareddy, as many as

1,997 were overflowing and735 were full up to 100 percent. Nalgonda which has4,454 tanks has 1,266 overflow-ing and 1,124 reached theirmaximum capacity.

Mahbubnagar which has 6,419tanks has 4,644 overflowingand 630 reached 100 per centcapacity. On the Godavaribasin, under SE Nirmal area718 tanks were overflowingand 1,694 reached their fullcapacity. In Karimnagar out of4,290 tanks, 2,578 tanks wereoverflowing and 1,063 were up

to the brim. Khammam with3,883 tanks has 2,795 overflow-ing, and 1,044 tanks reached100 per cent capacity.Nizamabad which has 3,206tanks has 992 overflowing and1,518 tanks reached 100 percent capacity. Warangal with6,030 tanks has 2,209 overflow-ing, and 2,887 tanks reachedfull capacity.

There were also breachesreported in several areas due toheavy rainfall, flooding ofrivulets and seasonal streamsthat have brought extremelyheavy inflows into these minorirrigation tanks with general-ly have less holding capacity.There were 318 breaches intanks under Krishna and 343breaches to tanks underGodavari basin.

Irrigation tanks overflowing in TSMore than 50% ofirrigation tanks,both in Krishnaand Godavari riverbasins, have beenoverflowingfollowing copiousinflows

State crosses one lakh Covid tests per million population

TS’ figure is1,00,670 samplestested per millionpopulation. Nationalaverage is 65,772.Delhi tops the list ofstates with1,93,399 tests permillion population

Continued from Page 1

However, the forecast for lowpressure to intensify intodepression is yet to known.The weather models canunderestimate or over-predictas was witnessed earlier thisweek.

Meanwhile, the IMD hasissued warning of heavy tovery heavy rainfall at isolatedplaces in the state for 19-20October. The rains are likely tocontinue until Dusshera thisseason. So far in the state, asper TSDPS, the Monsooncumulative rainfall from 1st to16th October 2020 is 133.3mm, against the normal 64.0

mm, being excess by 108%The State cumulative rainfall

from 1st June 2020 to 16thOctober 2020 is 1,211.6 mm,against the normal 784.4 mm,being excess by 54%. Out of

589 mandals: 43% of mandals(256) received large excess,34% of mandals (198) receivedexcess, 121% of mandals (21)received normal, and 14% ofmandals (2) received deficit.

Meanwhile for 17-18October, light to moderaterain is expected over Adilabad,Kumuram Bheem, Mancherial,Mulugu, BhadradriKothagudem, Khammam,Nalgonda, YadadriBhuvanagiri, Jangaon,Mahabubabad, Siddipet,M e d c h a l - M a l k a j g i r i ,Hyderabad, Rangareddy,Medak and Kamareddy dis-tricts and very light to lightrain in the remaining districts.

Continued from Page 1

In Czech Republic, s stateof emergency was introducedon 5 October, followed by anescalating series of restric-tions. Gatherings of morethan six people outside orindoors are prohibited,organised or otherwise, withonly precisely specifiedexceptions. All schools exceptkindergartens have switchedto distance learning, withpupils in the second stage ofprimary school being divid-ed into half-classes for thenext two weeks. In Denmark,new restrictions wereimposed on 19 Septemberand extended until 31October, though the nationwas among the first in Europeto reopen schools, with teach-ing carried out in “micro-groups” of no more than 12and staggered starting times.

In Finland, new curbs havebeen rolled out. In the coun-try’s six worst-affectedregions, hospitality venuesmust operate at half capaci-ty and close at 11pm. InHungary, the government isdetermined to avoid a fulllockdown, but since 1September has closed its bor-ders to almost all visitors.

HEAVY RAINS AGAIN! Continued from Page 1

Naini, who was infected on28 September byCoronavirus, tested negativefor COVID-19 a week ago.Earlier, he was under treat-ment for Covid-19 at theCity Neuro Center Hospitalin Banjara Hills for 16 days.

However, after his oxygenlevels dropped, he was admit-ted to Apollo Hospital atJubilee Hills on Tuesday foradvanced care. Doctors onceagain conducted medical testsand reportedly diagnosedlung infection and pneumo-nia.

Continued from Page 1

On the day of the incident,the man had tried to molestthegirl and she resisted it.

He then doused the girlwith petrol and set her ablaze,police had earlier said,addingshe suffered 70 per cent burns.The TSHRC on its own tookcognisance of media reportsabout the incident and soughta report from the Khammampolice.

The Commission pointedout lapses on the part of theprivate hospital where thegirl was initially treated with-out informing the police, andeven her family. It posted thematter to November 6.

Continued from Page 1

The bodies of five abrother, three daughters-in-law and a granddaugh-terof Taher Qureshi- - havebeen recovered, Omer said.

Three others (two sonsand a grandson of TaherQureshi) are still missing.

Omer said he hasapproached a senior policeofficial who promised allhelp in recovering the bod-ies. Former Corporator andMBT leader Amjed UllahKhan, who visited the fam-ily and posted messages onsocial media, said thegov-ernment should extend allthelp to them expeditious-ly. A Revenue official saidwater bodies and drainageswere overflowing onWednesday night due to thesudden and heavy down-pour and efforts were on totrace the missing persons.

Nayini onventilator...

Bodies offive of...

Torched tribalgirl succumbs...

Brace up for‘second...

Continued from Page 1

This year, five candidateswere identified using unfairpractices in the examinationand subsequently their candi-dature was cancelled.

Of the 54,872 students fromTelangana who registered forthe test, 50,392 appeared and49.15% qualified. Similary,62,051 students registered forNEET in AP, of which 57,721appeared and the qualifyingpercentage is 58.63.

7 TS, 8 AP students make it to Top 50 ist

1) Tummala Snikitha — All India Rank 3 — 715

(99.9995611)

2) Anantha Parakrama B Nookala — All India Rank

11 — 710 (99.9985369)

3) Bareddy Sai Thrisha Reddy — All India Rank 14

— 710 (99.9985369)

4) Sreeram Sai Shantha Varthan — All India Rank

27 — 705 (99.9960496)

5) Aaryash Agrawal — All India Rank 30 — 705

(99.9960496)

6) Malledi Rushith — All India Rank 33 — 705

(99.9960496)

7) Aavula Shubhang — All India Rank 27 — 705

(99.9960496)

1) Guthi Chitanya Sindhu — All India Rank 6 —715 (99.9995611)

2) Kota Venkat — All India Rank 13 — 710(99.9985369)

3) Bhavanam Manasa — All India Rank 16 — 710(99.9985369)

4) Shaik Kothapalli Arfath Khadeer — All India Rank18 — 710 (99.9985369)

5) Loka Sekhar Satvik Sarma — All India Rank 20— 710 (99.9985369)

6) Bala Siva Rama Krishna Jonnala — All IndiaRank 26 — 705 (99.9960496)

7) Dasari Sai Chakradhar — All India Rank 39 —705 (99.9960496)

8) Telu Swetha Gayatri — All India Rank 26 — 705(99.9960496)

ANDHRA PRADESHTELANGANA:

AMONG TOP 50 FROM TELUGU STATES

CBI unearths ‘Microsoft’ tech...Continued from Page 1

The searches were spreadacross various locations includ-ing Jaipur, Delhi, Noida,Gurgaon, Faridabad andMainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) atthe premises of private compa-nies and residential premises ofaccused persons in an on-going investigation of the case,Gaur said.

The US Department ofJustice (DOJ) said in a state-ment on Thursday that in an

"unprecedented collaborative"effort, the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) in Indiatook actions in parallel withtoday's filing against corporateand individual participants inthe scheme located in Delhi,Noida, Gurgaon, and Jaipur..

The Department of Justicesincerely appreciates the CBI'sefforts to disrupt and prosecutetechnical-support fraud, gov-ernment imposter fraud, andall other schemes directed atthe American public. Acting

Assistant Attorney GeneralJeffrey Bossert Clark of theCivil Division said in a state-ment in the US.

The US authorities havefiled a complaint in a Floridacourt against the scam onwhich the court on Thursdayhas issued a restraining orderto dismantle internet basedinfrastructure of the allegedfraudsters.

According to the complaintMichael Brian Cotter, 59, ofGlendale, California, know-

ingly provided US support forIndia-based accomplices infurtherance of the scheme, theDOJ statement said.

The complaint has allegedthat Cotter was working withIndian conspirators since 2011to set up domains, setting upshell companies and putting inplace payment infrastructurethrough banks and paymentoperators. Gaur said similarcoordination is being done bythe CBI with federal agenciesof the other countries.

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 17, 2020 hyderabad 03

PNS n HYDERABAD

On the third consecutive day,Municipal AdministrationMinister KT Rama Raoinspected the rain-affectedareas in Hyderabad. On theoccasion, the Minister interact-ed with the residents andassured them that all the reliefmeasures are being taken upon a war footing to bring backnormalcy in the area. He vis-ited the shelter home set up atBS Maqta and interacted withthe rain-affected residents.

Later, the Minister inspect-ed the inundated areas inPrakash Nagar andBrahmanwadi in Begumpetand took stock of the situation.He instructed GHMC offi-cials to provide necessary reliefto the citizens.

Minister also distributedration kits to the residents. Thegovernment has already start-ed distributing blankets andother relief material to the cit-izens at GHMC shelter homes.

As the rains have subsided,the GHMC is now focusing onsanitation works, he said. TheMinister appealed to the citi-zens to ensure that they drinksafe and boiled water for thecoming days to prevent dis-eases. KTR stated that all themedical facilities and emer-gency services are being pro-vided for the citizens. To aidthe Government's efforts torelief & restoration works fol-lowing heavy rains in the city,Mayor, Deputy Mayor, GHMCcorporators, and co-optionmembers have decided todonate their one month salaryto the CM Relief Fund. Andthe Cantonment Board mem-

bers have announced that theirfour months salary would bedonated to the CM ReliefFund. The letters to this effectwere handed over to KTR onFriday. Mayor Bonthu Ram

Mohan, MLAs DanamNagender, MadhavaramKrishna Rao, MynampallyHanmanth Rao accompaniedMinister KTR in their respec-tive areas.

As rains subside, GHMCfocuses on sanitation works

KTR asks civic body officialsto take up road repair works Hyderabad: Minister KT RamaRao on Friday directed GHMCofficials to take up restorationand repair of roads with the costof Rs 297 crores which weredamaged to incessant rains. Heheld a review meeting withofficials of GHMC, HMWS&SB,Electricity Departments in GHMCHead Office.

During the meeting, KTRinstructed the Electricity officialsto coordinate with GHMCofficials for restoration ofelectricity supply in colonies andapartments within 24 hourswhere electricity interrupted dueto inundation.

He instructed HMWSSB tosupply drinking water throughtankers in the inundation areas.

Also to take up repair works ofsewerage and water pipe linesthat were damaged recently, withRs 50 crores. Further, theMinister instructed theCommissioner GHMC to conductspecial Sanitation drive in flood-affected areas and also tocoordinate with the HealthDepartment in organizingmedical camp in the flood-affected areas.

Mayor Bonthu Rammohan,Dy Mayor Baba Fasiuddin,Principal Secretary ArvindKumar, HMWS&SB MD DanaKishore, Commissioner GHMCLokesh Kumar, TSSPDCL MDRaghurama Reddy and othersenior officials participated in thereview meeting.

MInister KT Rama Rao distributing essential items to people in flood-hit areas

Watch out for water-borne diseasesNAMRATA SRIVASTAVA n HYDERABAD

As the water recedes in the city,it doesn't just leave behind thestink, but also diseases. Thepublic health experts explainthat water logging can providefor a breeding ground for mos-quitoes. Dr G Srinivas Rao, theDirector of Public Health,Hyderabad, shares, "There arethree types of diseases that canarise from this situation - diar-rhoea, water-borne diseasesand vector-borne. This year,the cases of dengue and malar-ia have been in control, we areanticipating that these casesmight rise now due to the waterlogging. However, the GHMChas already been instructed totake care of the problem bymake sure that the water is notstagnant at any point."

"I must point out that theissue pertaining to water log-ging will be there for anotherweek or so. So, we have already

started the awareness cam-paigns asking people to cleantheir property, drink onlyboiled water and make use touse a mosquito repellent. But,we are prepared if the casesincrease."

Dr Mohammed Shafi, a well-known expert on Infectiousdisease, further adds that thecontact with contaminatedwater can also lead to lep-tospirosis. "Leptospirosis is abacterial disease spread

through the urine of infectedanimals. Since the waterentered the houses of manypeople, it is a possibility thatleptospirosis might spread."However, the doctor advisesthat people should use basicbleach powder to clean theirhouses. "I think the best way toclean the house is to use basicbleach and phenyl. However,the house will only be com-pletely clean once there issome sunlight."

HYD FLOODS

SAFETY FIRSTn Avoid storage of drink-ing water for few daysn Make sure to get thestagnant water removedfrom your surroundingsn Make sure to use mos-quito repellant for a fewdays after the floodrecedesn Throw away allthe food itemsstored and avoidconsuming any-thing that wasstoredn After cleaningyour home and camein contact with flood-water, wash your handsthoroughly with soapbefore you touch your facen Do not eat raw vegeta-bles and fruits from yourfarm or garden if it wassubmerged in floodwater

n Drink only boiled waterand eat only those fooditems that are prepared cau-tiouslyn Discard all the damageditems from your home like

screens, carpets, mat-tresses, pillows, etcn If you have

many wet itemsat home, drythem by plac-ing themunder the sunwhen the

weather is goodn Your walls and

ceilings may be wetand develop moulds wearmask while cleaningn Floodwater can alsobring hazardous chemicals,carcinogenic substanceswear protective gear whereever possible

Woman sedated, raped byfriends at birthday partyPNS n HYDERABAD

A 19-year-old girl was report-edly drugged and raped by agroup of youngsters, includingher friends, at Kukatpally. Thepolice booked a case andarrested the accused on Friday.The arrested were identified asMadhoji Joseph(20),Bondagadla NaveenReddy(22), Ragani Ramu(23)all residents of Sanathnagar.

According to the Police, onOctober 5, the 19-year-oldwas invited for a birthdayparty few days ago by the sus-pects, who are her friends.

They booked a room in AnandInn (OYO Lodge), near KPHBMetro Station. At the birthdayparty, they reportedly servedher cake laced with sedatives.They committed the offenceafter she fell unconscious. "Asper their plan, the accusedcommitted gang rape and

threatened her with dire con-sequences if she revealed theabuse to her family membersor any outsiders," saidKukatpally Police. Due to fearthe victim didn't reveal herorderal to her family. However,on October 11, her healthcondition deteriorated and shefell unconscious. When herfamily confronted her sherevealed about her orderal.

Initially, zero FIR was issuedat Jubilee Hills police stationwhich was later transfered toKukatpally police for furtherinvestigation based on thejurisdiction.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Minister for AnimalHusbandry Talasani SrinivasYadav on Friday toured vari-ous f lood-hit areas inMusheerabad Assembly con-stituency along with LocalMLA Muthagopal and offi-cials. On the third day, he vis-ited Arundhati Nagar inGandhi Nagar division,Nagamayi Kunta, PadmaNagar, Papad Galli in Adikmetdivision and told them that thestate government would solvethe problems in the inundat-ed areas.

He assured all support onbehalf of the state government.Residents of Arundhati Nagartold the Minister the release offlood water into the nala led toflooding of their colony. Theyurged the Minister for steps to

increase the height of theretaining wall of the nala toavoid any problems to theirlocality in future. The Ministerassured the residents to takesteps to increase the retainingwall height from 3 feet to thatof 10 feet.

The Minister told the peo-ple that heavy rains caused thisyear caused the flooding. Healso blamed the encroach-ment of the nalas and con-structions made on nalascaused for inundation of theareas.

Corporatorsdonate onemonth salary to CMRF PNS n HYDERABAD

GHMC corporators onFriday donated their onemonth's salary to CMRF.In view of the incessantrains, Mayor Dr.BonthuRammohan, Dy.Mayor BabaFasiuddin handed over thecheque of Corporators onemonth's salary towardsCMRF to Minister K TRama Rao. GHMC Mayordraws Rs 50,000 and Rs25,000 to Deputy Mayor permonth. About 148 corpora-tors and 5 co-option mem-bers received an honorariumof Rs 6000. In addition, themembers of the CantonmentBoard will donate the nextfour months' honorariumfrom the Chief Minister'sRelief fund.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Governor TamilisaiSoundararajan on Friday gave acall to the engineers to come outwith innovations and competeat the global level so as to makeIndia proud and self-reliant. Shesaid that the engineers have animportant role in translatingPrime Minister NarendraModi's vision of Atma NirbharBharat into a reality.

"You have so many opportu-nities to contribute to the coun-try and fulfil your ambitions forinnovation by participating inMake in India, Start Up India

and Atma Nirbhar Bharat andother initiatives launched by thegovernment," she added. TheGovernor was delivering theChancellor's address at the IXConvocation of the JNTUH ina virtual mode from the RajBhavan.

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

At a time when hundreds ofdisaster response personnel,NGOs, cops and aam admiyondid yeoman service to providesuccour to those hit by heavyrains and floods in the past fewdays, Hyderabad Metro too wason track to rise to the occasion.It ran a special train to helptransport a pregnant lady justwhen the city was being lashedby heavy rains.

With most roads inundated,several stranded people in var-ious parts of the city looked up

to Metro. One among them wasa 35-year-old pregnant woman,who pleaded with the Metroauthorities to run a service fromVictoria Memorial to MiyapurMetro station. Even though theoperation hours were over, onespecial train ran at 10am. HMRLMD N V S Reddy on Friday

said, “Normally, from 7am-9pm, we run services, but onOctober 14, due to an emer-gency, a special train was run at10am. We thank L&T for facil-itating a standing instruction torun trains in case of emergencyto take care of citizens ofHyderabad”. Anil Kumar SainiL&THMRL COO added: “Thepassenger would be around35years-old. That night therewere a lot of people who werestuck as there were no cabs. So,we continued to run the ser-vice and allowed other peoplealso to board, even thoughoperation hours were over”.

Metro runs special train forpregnant lady beyond hours

ED attaches propertiesof DC Holdings LtdPNS n HYDERABAD

The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has provisionally attachedimmovable assets totaling to Rs122.15 crore under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)in a loan fraud case. Theattached assets belong to DeccanChronicle Holdings Limited(DCHL) and two of its formerpromoters namely T VenkatramReddy and T Vinayakravi Reddyand that of a benami companyfloated by them.

The immovable assets areconsisting of 14 propertieslocated in New Delhi,Hyderabad, Gurgaon,Chennai, Bangalore etc. Allthese attached assets are notcovered under the NCLTprocess. This is the secondattachment in this case. After

this attachment in addition tothe earlier attachment, thetotal amount of assets attachedso far comes to Rs 264.56crore.

According to ED, investiga-tion has been initiated againstM/s DCHL and its manage-ment in the year 2015, based onsix FIRs and correspondingcharge sheets filed by variouscentral agencies like CBI,BS&FC, Bangalore. Anothercharge sheet has been filed byCCS Police and a prosecutionhas also been filed by SEBIagainst M/s DCHL. The totalloan fraud committed by M/sDCHL and its promoters is esti-mated to be Rs 8,180 crore. M/sDCHL is currently under theCIRP process in which a reso-lution plan for only Rs 400Crore has been approved by theNCLT.

26L litres of freshwater supplied PNS n HYDERABAD

About 26.70 lakh litres of freshwater was supplied through534 tankers in the flood-hitareas on Friday. Water boardofficials visited the flood-hitareas and distributed fresh waterthrough water cans and waterpackets in areas where tankerscould not go.

Around 1,700 fresh watercans were supplied, 2,500 bot-tles of fresh water, 25,000freshwater packets were sup-plied. The water board hastaken relief measures for thosewho are facing difficulties in

getting good water supply inmany parts of Hyderabad citydue to heavy rains in the lastfew days. MD Dana Kishoredirected the authorities toexpedite water supply restora-tion works in the submergedareas of the city. HMWSSB isalso supplying chlorine tabletsand bleaching powder. While2.5lakh Chlorine tablets weredistributed, 3,108kg bleachingpowder was given away. In all,households where water hasentered and stayed in forsometime HMWSSB staff aredistributing 1 kg bleachingpowder.

PGECET resultsannouncedPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana State Council ofHigher Education (TSCHE)on Friday released the TSPGECET result on October16. A total of 86.01 per centhave qualified out of 16,807candidates who had appearedfor the exams. This year,22,282 candidates had regis-tered for the test. And of

those registered, 16,807appeared from whom, 14,456candidates including 6,663women have qualified.

The entrance examinationfor admissions intoME/MTec/March/MPharm,Graduate level Pharm-D(Post Baccalaureate) pro-grammes was conducted in19 subjects from September21 to 24.

Talasani visitsflood-hit areas

Guv: Strive towards Atmanirbhar Bharat

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 17, 2020 hyderabad 04

Modern public toilets constructed by Karimnagar Municipal Corporation

FOCUS OON SSANITATION

Eyes on runner-up in Dubbak by-poll K VENKATESHWARLU

n HYDERABAD

By-polls have had the history ofthrowing up unpredictableresults in Telangana and the by-election to Dubbak AssemblyConstituency is sure to followthe trend. Dubbak is witnessingtriangular contest between theruling TRS, Congress and BJP.

The political parties haveconcentrated on campaignseriously to ensure victory fortheir candidate. However, anyone party will emerge victori-ous in the by-poll. In the back-drop of the Congress and BJP'sclaim that they are the alterna-tive to the ruling TRS, the cru-cial question ahead of by-pollis who will emerge as the run-ner up. If TRS retains theDubbak seat, second placebecomes important toCongress and BJP. BothCongress and BJP are claimingthat they are alternative partyto the ruling TRS. In case TRS

loses the election, there wouldnot be any priority to the 'sec-ond place' and the equationswill be changed drastically.However, the ruling TRS partyis confident of winningDubbak seat with a huge mar-gin. The ruling party hasentrusted the responsibilities ofDubbak by-election to TRS'trouble shooter and FinanceMinister T Harish Rao. TheSiddipet MLA took the electionas prestigious and he is leadingthe campaign from the front.Simultaneously, Harish Rao

has successfully taken up'Operation Akarsh' by induct-ing the local leaders ofCongress and BJP fromDubbak constituency.

Harish Rao is not giving anyscope to the opposition partiesand giving series of shocks tothe opposition parties byattracting leaders from oppo-sition parties. According tosources, few more leaders arein queue to join the ruling TRS.The induction of these leaderswill take place strategically todisturb the leaders of opposi-

tion parties. On the otherhand, the Congress, for the firsttime deployed all its leaders inconstituency. The Congressalso appointed in-charges toevery village. Newly-appoint-ed State Congress Affairs in-charge Manickam Tagore hasbeen supervising the progressof the campaign in the con-stituency time and again, it islearnt. However, the local lead-ers are quitting the party oneafter the other disappointingthe top brass. There are spec-ulations that Siddipet DistrictCongress president T NarsaReddy is not happy with thestate leadership and is on sec-ond thoughts in continuing inthe party. The state leadershipalmost finalised his name forDubbak by-elections. However,the party finalised formerMinister Cheruku MuthyamReddy's son Cheruku SrinivasReddy's candidature.

On the other hand, theCongress leaders are staying in

their allotted villages and aretrying to make the peopleinclined towards Congressparty. However, the state lead-ers, who are staying in the vil-lages, are facing troubles withthe local leadership as they arenot much cooperative, it is said.The BJP is putting all outefforts to win this election.Similar to the Congress party,the BJP is of opinion that reg-istering victory in Dubbak bypoll will ensure victory in nextAssembly elections. However,the BJP is also facing similarproblem that of Congress.Leaders and cadre fromDubbak constituency are mak-ing beeline to join the rulingTRS. The party' candidate MRaghunandan Rao had startedhis campaign much beforeTRS and Congress candidates'.The BJP is of opinion thatRaghunandan Rao's victorywill bring glory to the partysimilar to the victory of fourMPs in the state.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP chief BandiSanjay Kumar on Fridaylaunched a scathing attack onChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao anddemanded the latter to visit theflood-hit areas. "The ChiefMinister should personallyvisit flood-hit areas and shouldstop sending 'boot polish gang'or else people would revolt," healleged. The Karimnagar MPwas speaking after visitingflood-hit areas inDilshukhnagar, GaddiAnnaram, Bairamalguda,Banjara Colony. He spoke tothe people and enquired aboutthe problems they are facingdue to heavy rains.

"In the last six years, tanks,lakes and nalas have beenencroached in Hyderabad city.The TRS government shouldown responsibility for it," hesaid. Finding fault with thestate government for statingthat it spent Rs 67,000 crore,Sanjay demanded the govern-

ment to reveal as to where itspent the money. All coloniesin the city resembled river andcars were submerged in floodwater and in the same manner,TRS 'car' would also be sub-merged in the upcomingGHMC elections," he said.

Stating that the Centre isready to extend help, BandiSanjay said that the ChiefMinister, who divertedCentre's Covid funds, has beendemanding Rs 5,000 crorefrom the Centre. Finding faultwith KCR for criticizing theCentre time and now regard-

ing funds, Sanjay questionedthe state government to revealwhether it is giving funds tothe people freely.

Bandi Sanjay said that thepeople of the flood-hit areashave no food, drinking waterand power. He demanded thestate government to initiatesteps on war footing. "It is notproper on part of PoliceDepartment to harass Dalitwomen and locals, who ques-tioned TRS working presidentand Municipal AdministrationMinister KT Rama Rao whenhe visited their area," he said.

Bandi demands KCR tovisit flood-hit areas

Seethakka slams govtover death of tribal girlPNS n HYDERABAD

Congress MLA from MuluguDanasiri Anasuya aliasSeethakka on Friday allegedthat the state governmentneglected the tribal girl fromKhammam. The 13-year-oldgirl, who was set on fire,allegedly by her employer athis home for resisting a rapeattempt, died on Thursdaynight while undergoing treat-ment for nearly a month. TheMLA said that the girl diedafter waging fight for the lifefor 25 days. She demanded thestate government to extendhelp to the kin of the deceased.She deplored that there is nowomen commission to ventgrievances of the women.

Seethakka, along withTPCC official spokesperson

Indira Shoban staged a protestwith 'Bathukammas' underTelugu Talli Flyover'. Laterspeaking to the media, theyalleged that the TRS govern-ment was least bothered aboutthe atrocities in Telangana.Already two people have losttheir lives, however, eitherpolice or the state governmentdidn't care about these inci-dents, they said.

They said that'Bathukamma' is a festival of'daughters', however, sadly theKhammam girl died on thefestival day. They demandedthe state government to set upa Women Commission imme-diately. Congress leaders-Sudha, Srinivas Goud, Judson,Kalpana, Uzma, Vijay, Shobhaand others participated in theprogramme.

Vijayashanthilashes out atKCRPNS n HYDERABAD

TPCC campaign commit-tee chairperson Vijayashanthion Friday took potshots atChief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao overthe flood situation in thestate. “The Chief Minister hasto introspect himself as towhat he has done after com-ing to power. KCR used tocriticise the then rulers say-ing that tanks, lands werebeing subjected to encroach-ments in Hyderabad citybesides illegal constructions,however, even KCR didn’tobstruct those illegal activi-ties after he came to power.The style of TRS administra-tion would be witnessed ifone sees the KCR’s dreamworld city,” she alleged in herFacebook statement.

COVID IMPACT

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Centre has directed thestate governments to installCCTV cameras in publicparks and food courts to pre-vent crowding. It asked thestates not to open public parksin containment areas, accord-ing to guidelines issued byHealth and Family WelfareDepartment. It laid heavyemphasis on putting in placeCovid-19 preventive measuresas a large number of peoplewill gather in parks for amuse-ment and relaxation.

Besides observing socialdistance and wearing masks,people should wash hands asfrequently as possible andthey should also use handsanitisers. Spitting in publicplace has been prohibited.People aged 65 years andmore and those who are suf-fering from chronic diseases,pregnant women and childrenbelow 10 years of age shouldconfine themselves to theirhomes. Among employees ofthe public work, those whohave been indisposed andexpectant mothers should

take additional precautions.They should avoid direct con-tact with public while dis-charging their duties. Thereshould be marks on groundinside the park and also out-side to enable people toobserve physical distance.People should move in aqueue both outside and insidethe park. Enough employeesshould be posted to ensurepeople follow the queue dis-cipline.

The Centre asked the stateto allow food courts andrestaurants to allow only 50per cent of the customers ofthe total seating capacity. It ismandatory for the food courtstaff members like waiters towear masks and gloves. Thedoor handles, elevator buttons,chairs, benches, walls andother structures in museums,horticultural gardens, foodcourts and theatres should besanitised with sodiumhypochlorate. Those whohave Covid-19 symptomsshould be discouraged to visitparks. There is no entry forthose who live in containmentzones.

Parks, food courtsunder tight vigil

Cyber police crack the whip on fraudstersDURGA PRASAD SUNKU

n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad Cyber Crime teamarrested 10 people fromBharatpur, Rajasthan forindulging in OLX frauds andclaimed to have solved aroundfour cases. In addition to that,Hyderabad Police also tookeight members into custodywho were involved in eightcases. In total, 18 cyber fraud-sters have been arrested in 12cases. Those arrested on Fridaywere identified as as VajibKhan, Sahil, Sahid, UmerKhan, Satvirsingh, Ifran, Tarif,Mohan Singh, Azaruddin andRahul.

In a joint operation withBharatpur Police, the CyberCrime team raided the vil-lages in the late night with ahope to lift suspected cybercriminals. However, the teamcaught with surprise whenthe villagers attacked police

by pelting stones and throw-ing chili powder at them. Thepolice had to fire tear gas toprotect themselves from themob and whisked away tenaccused f rom the spot .Fortunately, none of thepolicemen were injured.However, in the melee,reportedly three police vehi-

cles were damaged. Investigation revealed that

the accused indulging inscams on online market-place like OLX, Quickr,Facebook since May 2018."The accused lures the vic-tim by posting fake adver-tisements regarding sale ofvehicles, mobile phones, fur-

niture items and other elec-tronic gadgets with lowprices in different onlinemarketplaces. Once the vic-tims falls for the trap, theaccused impersonate asArmy and CISF Personnel togain confidence of their tar-gets," said KVM PrasadAssistant Commissioner ofPolice, Hyderabad CyberCrime.

Further, to gain more trustof their targets, the accusedsend the soft copies of fakeAadhar and Identity cards ofdefense personnel. Once thetarget takes the bait theaccused insist them todeposit the money citing var-ious reasons like advanceamount, gate pass charges,shipment charges, Insurancecharges and delivery chargesby sending the fake transportreceipts reflecting Indianarmy symbols.

"The accused siphon the

money of victims till theyrealise it is fraud. If confront-ed accused avoid the victimcalls and switch off theirmobiles, added Prasad. Basedon the complaint from SudhirKumar, a resident ofAlugaddaBavi, Mettuguda,Secunderabad who lost Rs56,000 in the OLX fraud,Hyderabad Cyber Crimepolice booked a case andinvestigated it.

Team headed by Inspectorof Police S Naveen consistingof team members Sub-inspectors Ramesh and Vinayand pol ice constablesHanuman Prasad, Suresh,Prabhu and Vijay and othercamped ten days inBharatpur to nab the accused.Hyderabad Cyber crimepolice cautioned public not tobelieve such 'Unrealisticoffers' regarding sale of suchcars, mobiles and other elec-tronic devices.

PNSn HYDERABAD

Nizamabad MLC KalvakuntlaKavitha on Friday announcedthat Bathukamma celebrationsby Telangana Jagruthi werecancelled in the light of Covid-19. Kavitha, who is presentlyunder home-quarantine aftercoming in contact with MLASanjay Kumar took to hersocial media platforms toextend her heartfelt wishes onthe occasion of Bathukamma.

She reminded people of thestate that we are still in the mid-dle of a pandemic, our safetyand the safety of our loved oneslies in our hands. She request-ed the women of the state totake all the precautions, main-tain social distancing and avoidlarge gatherings while cele-brating this festival of joy.

In a note posted by Kavitha,she emphasized on the cultur-al significance and legacy ofthe tradition that Bathukammacelebrates. She recalled thedirect analogy between thevarious seasonal flowers that

are adorned in those 9 days tothem being an embodiment ofreality, historically as well as incurrent times. She said thatChief Minister KChandrashekar Rao has playedthe role of an elder brother andfatherly figure for the womenof Telangana, like every yearthe state government is distrib-uting sarees on the occasion.Meanwhile, Telangana Jagruthihosted a function at the AshokNagar based headquarters onFriday wherein they unveiled8 songs recorded to add joy in

the celebrations ofBathukamma along with pock-et-size books of Bathukammasongs printed in the form oftext. The organization furtherreleased 3 special Bathukammasongs by director DamodarReddy to mark the success ofthe event.

The Bathukamma songshave been written by poet andwriter Kodari Srinu, sung byfamous singers Telu Vijaya,Padmavati, and Varam, com-posed by Venu and directed byDamodar Reddy.

Telangana Jagruti cancelsBathukamma celebrations

Dasoju demands Rs 50 lakhex gratia to kin of deceasedPNS n HYDERABAD

AICC Spokesperson DrDasoju Sravan on Fridaylaunched a scathing attack onChief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao for his'inhuman' attitude towards theflood-affected citizens ofHyderabad. The senior con-gress leader criticized KCRfor not responding on theserious issue of floods whichcaused huge damage to thepeople of this city anddemanded to announce ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh to the fam-ily of each deceased person. Hefurther said that the TRS gov-ernment has miserably failedin handling the situation in therain-hit Hyderabad that was

completely inundated withflood water. Sravan, along witha team of congress leaders metthe GHMC Commissioner,Lokesh Kumar on Friday andstaged a dharna against thegovernment's laziness and fail-ure in front of the GHMCoffice. Greater Hyderabad

Congress president AnjanKumar Yadav, GreaterCongress leaders Feroze Khan,Anil Kumar Yadav and otherswere present on the occasion.

He expressed disppointmentthat, despite having huge man-power, GHMC did not reactpromptly to the situation.

PMGSY works to be expedited PNS n HYDERABAD

Panchayat Raj and RuralDevelopment MinisterErrabelli Dayakar Rao direct-ed the department officials toexpedite works pertaining todevelopment of 158 roadssanctioned under the PrimeMinister Gram Sadak Yojana.

He wanted that the workssubject to regulations should becompleted as the first priorityand those posing problems

should be completed afterresolving the issues as a secondpriority. Reviewing the workshere on Friday, the Minister saidthere should be optimum util-isation of Central funds tocomplete road constructionworks with quality standardsand within fixed time-frame.He asked the officials to person-ally monitor the constructionwork at regular interval andsubmit status reports to theirhigher officials.

43-year-oldfound deadPNS n HYDERABAD

A 43-year-old employeeworking with private airlineswas found dead inShamshabad on Thursday.The deceased, identified as NMadhava Rao, was workingas an engineer for IndigoAirlines at the Rajiv GandhiInternational Airport.According to the police,Madhava Rao had gone miss-ing on Tuesday night. It issuspected that he got washedaway during the heavy down-pour on Tuesday night.

Sabitha faces ire of corporatorsPNS n HYDERABAD

On Thursday, locals hurledslippers at TRS MLAManchireddy Kishan Reddyand other workers, duringtheir visit to flood-affectedMedipally area. Also, InUppal, Subhash Reddy facedan embarrassing situationwhen he tried to console theflood-affected people.

And now, EducationMinister Sabitha Indra Reddyfaced a similar situation when

she visited flood-affectedareas in Badangpet. The cor-porators questioned theMinister asking as to why

they are not giving priorinformation regarding theirvisits. Even, the people raisedtheir voice.

CM greets peopleon BathukammaPNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao has con-veyed his greetings to peoplein the State on the occasion ofthe Bathukamma festival. TheChief Minister urged the peo-ple to celebrate theBathukamma festival, a sym-bol of Telangana Pride and

culture, with devotion. TheChief Minister prayed to theGoddess to bless that the agri-culture sector in the stateshould prosper with highyields and each and everyhousehold should have peaceand happiness. The ChiefMinister also asked the peopleto celebrate the festival strict-ly following the Corona guide-lines and restrictions.

HYDERABAD |SATURDAY | OCTOBER 17, 2020 nation 05

INDIA CORNER

Agroup of 17 personsallegedly ransackedand looted a beer bar

on Mumbai-Nashik Highwayin Maharashtra, police saidon Friday.The incident tookplace on Thursday afternoonwhen the group had cometo the beer bar for lunch andlater refused to pay for themeal, inspector Dattu Bhoye

of Kasara police station saidThe accused allegedly ransacked theplace and decamped with Rs 82,000 from the cash counter, hesaid. Of the 17 men, belonging to Shirol, Kasara, Kalyan andShahapur, three have been arrested for rioting so far, while hunthas been launched for the others, the official said.An offence hasbeen registered under sections 395 (dacoity) among otherprovisions of the IPC against the accused, he added.

Locals ransack, loot beer bar onMaha highway: three held

ANaxal was killed ina gun- battle withsecurity forces in

Chhattisgarh's Bijapurdistrict on Friday,police said.Theencounter took placearound 9:30 am insidea forest betweenKorsaguda andOutpallivillages underthe Basaguda police station area when a joint team of securityforces was out on a search operation, Inspector General of Police(Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI.The patrolling team,comprising personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) and the local police, was cordoning off the forest whenultras opened fire at them, he said.The security personnel swiftlyretaliated, the IPS officer said.After the guns fell silent, the body ofa Naxal along with a weapon and Maoist-related materials wererecovered from the spot, around 450km from state capital Raipur,Sundarraj said.

Naxal killed in gunfight withsecurity forces in Chhattisgarh

Birthday wishes poured infrom across the country asOdisha's five-time Chief

Minister Naveen Patnaik turned75 on Friday.President RamNath Kovind, Vice-President MVenkaiah Naidu and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi wishedPatnaik over phone on theoccasion. The PM also took toTwitter to greet the BJD

chief."Birthday greetings to Odisha CM Shri Naveen Patnaik Ji.Praying for his long and healthy life," he tweeted.Patnaik had saidon Thursday that he would skip celebrations this year, in view ofthe COVID-19 crisis. He advised his party members, supportersand well-wishers to help those in need to mark his birthday.Leaders cutting across party lines, including Union MinisterRajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Dharmendra Pradhan, extendedtheir greetings to the chief minister on Friday. His counterparts inTripura, Nagaland and Madhya Pradesh also prayed for his healthand long life. Artist Sudarsan Pattnaik created a sand sculpture ofthe CM to wish him on his birthday. Earlier, too, Patnaik hadskipped birthday celebrations of multiple occasions, including lastyear, when Cyclone Fani had struck the state, leaving behind a trailof destruction. Patnaik had joined politics in 1997 after the demiseof his father and former CM Biju Patnaik. He took over the reins ofOdisha in 2000 and had since held the post of the chief minister.

Prez, VP, PM greet Odisha CM on his 75th birthday

Leader of Opposition in RajyaSabha Ghulam Nabi Azad hastested positive for COVID-19

and has quarantined himself athome. The 71-year-old Congressleader shared the information onTwitter and asked those whocame in contact with him in therecent past to follow protocols onself-quarantine and testing."I havetested positive for COVID-19. Iam in home quarantine. Thosewho came in contact with me inthe last few days may kindly follow the protocol," he said in atweet.Earlier senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Motilal Voraand Abhishek Singhvi had tested positive for COVID-19. WhileSinghvi has recovered, other leaders are still under treatment.

Ghulam Nabi Azad tests positive for COVID-19

CCTV footage from Hathras hospital ‘lost’PNS n UTTAR PRADESH

CBI investigations into theHathras rape and murder casehit their first roadblock whenthe investigators found that theCCTV footage of September14, the day the victim wasbrought in to the hospital, hasbeen 'lost'.

Chief MedicalSuperintendent of the Hathrasdistrict hospital, Indra VeerSingh, said that the hospitalwould have saved the footageif the police had asked them to.

"Previous footage gets delet-ed every seven days and newfootage gets recorded over it.We do not keep a back-upunless specifically asked to," hesaid.

The victim had first beentaken to the district hospital fortreatment after the incidentand the footage could have pro-

vided crucial evidence abouther condition after she wasallegedly attacked.

The CBI team had visitedthe hospital to record state-ments of doctors and examineevidence. CBI sources said thatthe footage would have helpedthem ascertain the condition ofthe victim when she wasbrought there, who attended toher and who spoke to her

when she was there.A police officer said the

hospital has "nothing to do"with the crime-related investi-gation. "Unless a crime takesplace in the hospital or negli-gence is reported, this has nobearing on the criminal inves-tigation. These are unrelatedthings. That is why CCTVfootage was not taken intoaccount," he said.

Poor state of women safety in UttarPradesh disturbing: Priyanka GandhiNew Delhi: Congress generalsecretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadraon Friday attacked the YogiAdityanath government in UttarPradesh over the state of womensafety, and alleged that 13horrific incidents of crimesagainst women have taken placein the last week.

She highlighted a chart ofvarious incidents of crimesagainst women in Uttar Pradeshfrom October 9 to 15 and allegedthat the BJP is giving protectionto the criminals and this hasmade women unsafe in the state.

In the last one week, 13horrific incidents of crimeagainst women have occurred inUP. As per reports, victims have

been killed or the victimscommitted suicide in four suchincidents," she said in a tweet inHindi."This poor condition of women

safety is disturbing. The chiefminister has no time to convenea 'special session' but his photosession is on," she also saidwhile taking a swipe at the chiefminister. She has earlierattacked the government on thelaw and order situation. TheCongress general secretary, whois in-charge for Uttar Pradeshaffairs of the party, has launcheda major offensive on thegovernment ever since theHathras rape and murder casehas taken place.

Anything is possible in politics!PNSn THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The new found alliancebetween once arch rivals CPI-M and Jose K. Mani proves thatanybody can be 'bedbuddies' ifit serves the purpose in politics.

This new 'political' mar-riage, was on the cards eversince Jose (son of late K.M.Mani, one of the founders ofthe Congress led UnitedDemocratic Front) who leadsthe faction of the erstwhileKerala Congress (Mani), wascut up with party veteran andsenior legislator P.J.Joseph. Josedecided to part ways with theUDF, a few months back.

The once united KC (M) forall practical purposes wasbehaving like two differententities after the passing awayof Mani, last year.

The Congress party whichleads the UDF gave numerouschances to Jose to mend hisways and to behave like a

responsible ally, but sensingthat, his position in the UDFwould be untenable, hebreached the line, forcing theCongress to kick Jose out.

With two crucial polls --local body and assembly elec-tions on the cards, and overallimage of Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan, taking ahitlike never before on account ofnumerous scams and scan-dals, the CPI-M which leadsthe Left coalition (LDF)extended an olive branch toJose.

The two arch-rivals forgotthe brutal past duringK.M.Mani's time, and somer-

saulted to make the unlikelymarriage a reality. Leader ofOpposition and veteranCongress leader RameshChennithala described this asan 'unholy' alliance of conve-nience and not one made withconviction.

"Jose has betrayed his fatherand Mani's soul will neverforgive him for this act. It'sdeeply distressing to note thatJose has joined the tormentorsof his father, who called Mani,a liar and a looter," saidChennithala. Two time formerChief Minister OommenChandy said this is a classic actof son betraying father.

Prasar Bharati ends PTI subscriptionPNSn NEW DELHI

Prasar Bharati has ended itssubscription of news agencyPress Trust of India (PTI) andwill now invite fresh proposalsfrom other domestic newsagencies, sources said.

PTI, the largest news agencyof the country, is run by aBoard comprising owners andproprietors of key newspapergroups and is a non-profittrust. Prasar Bharati decided toend its "current ad-hoc pro-rata arrangement for the PTIsubscription" four months afterit was alleged that the agency'scoverage of India-China clashwas unfair and not in sync withnational interest.

The national broadcaster isone of the biggest subscribersof the agency, and it pays PTIover Rs 6.75 crore annually,sources said. A letter to bothPTI and UNI has been sent

regarding this. Sources saidthat Prasar Bharati will initiatea process of inviting fresh pro-posals from all the news agen-cies including PTI and UNI. Acontroversy broke when thenational broadcaster sent aletter threatening to end its"relationship" over the alleged"anti-national" reportage bynews agency in June this year.

PTI had carried an interviewwith Chinese Ambassador SunWeidong, where he blamed

India for the India-China vio-lent standoff that saw 20 Indianbravehearts getting martyred.

Sources said a "strong letter"was sent to PTI just ahead of itsBoard meeting in June wherethe public broadcaster expressed"deep displeasure on anti-national reporting by PTI". Thepublic broadcaster had commu-nicated that the PTI's editorialstance makes it untenable to"continue the relationship".Government sources claim that

the broadcaster had been "sup-porting PTI with huge financialfees" which often ran into sev-eral crore. This ad-hoc pro-rataarrangement has been going onfor decades, claimed the source.However, it insisted that PTI hasbeen "rigid" on review of thesame since 2016-17.

PM Modi ReleasesRs 75 Coin PNSn NEW DELHI

World Food Day is celebratedon October 16 every year.This global event endeavors toraise awareness on depletingfood resources and highlightsthe need to bring equal nutri-tion to all. This year's WorldFood Day is of great impor-tance as the world is grapplingwith disturbed food systems inthe wake of Coronavirus pan-demic. The day also marks the75th anniversary of the Foodand Agriculture Organization(FAO), which was establishedby the United Nations in theyear 1945. To celebrate theimportance of food and agri-culture in India, PM NarendraModi released a commemo-rate coin of INR 75 denomi-

nation and also dedicated new17 crops to the nation.

World Food Day 2020 aimsto give impetus to agricultureand development of healthyfoods and eradicate the prob-lem of malnutrition andundernutrition, which is ram-pant in many parts of theworld, including India. PMNarendra Modi took this as anopportunity to gift to thefarmers of the country - 17newly-developed biofortifiedvarieties of eight crops.

In a first, Sangay invitedformally to US State DeptPNSn DHARAMSALA

In a first-of-its-kind initiativeto boost the support to theTibetan cause, Central TibetanAdministration (CTA)President Lobsang Sangay hasbeen invited formally to the USState Department, officials saidon Friday.

At a meeting with thenewly-appointed SpecialCoordinator Robert Destro inWashington, Sangay onThursday sought to resumetalks between the Dalai Lamaenvoys and the Chinese basedon the 'middle-way' approach.

During the meeting, Destroasked what he and the StateDepartment could do to sup-port the Tibetan diaspora.

Globally known as thePrime Minister-in-exile,Sangay went on to explain theimportance of passing theTibetan Policy and SupportAct of 2020 and the alarmingworsening conditions of

Tibetans in Tibet.Toeing the path adopted by

Tibetan spiritual leader theDalai Lama for years to resolvethe issue of Tibet with Chinathrough the 'middle-way'approach, Sangay urged Destroto press the Chinese govern-ment to have dialogue betweenthe envoys of the Dalai Lamaand the Chinese government.

The 'middle-way' approachfavours 'genuine autonomy'for Tibetans within the frame-work of the Chinese constitu-tion and does not speak of

independence.China and the Dalai Lama's

envoys have held nine roundsof talks since 2002 to resolvethe Tibetan issue.

During the last round oftalks, the ninth one, held inBeijing in January 2010, theCTA submitted an explanato-ry note to the Chinese leader-ship to clarify its stand onautonomy for the Tibetan peo-ple.

"The US is concerned by thelack of meaningful autonomyfor Tibetans and the CCP'songoing crackdown onTibetan Buddhists. As SpecialCoordinator, I will continueurging the PRC to respect thehuman rights and unique reli-gious, cultural, and linguisticidentity of Tibetans," Destroinformed in a tweet.

At the meeting, Sangay, whois at helm for his second con-secutive term, also elucidatedthe ongoing Indo-Tibet borderclashes.

Apex Court seeksCentre's response PNSn NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court soughtresponse from Centre on a pleaseeking direction to theDepartment of Justice to issueguides/handbooks in plainEnglish and in vernacular --easily understandable by lay-men explaining the law andprocedure for vindication ofrights and redressal of griev-ances under the law.

The counsel began his argu-ments saying, "May I pleaseyour lordships.." A bench head-ed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobdesaid "Speak correct English.You should say 'may it please'.We don't want anyone to pleaseus." The Chief Justice alsocited book by Bryan Garner onusing plain language and "wehave read this book too".

The plea filed by advocateSubhash Vijayran said the writ-ing of most Lawyers is wordy,

unclear, pompous and dull, asthey use eight words, instead oftwo, to say something. "We usearcane phrases to express com-monplace ideas. Seeking to beprecise, we become redundant.Seeking to be cautious, webecome verbose. Our writing isteemed with legal jargon andlegalese. And the story goes on",said the plea. The plea contend-ed as a consequence of thiscomplexity, the common manneither understands the systemnor the laws. "Everything is somuch complicated and confus-ing. The way laws are enacted,practiced and administered inour country violates the funda-mental rights of the masses bydenying them -- Access toJustice", added the plea. Inmany countries, laws mandatethat public agencies use plainlanguage to increase access toprograms and services, saidthe plea.

Modi changed politicalculture, says JP Nadda

PNSn NEW DELHI

High-level central teams havebeen deputed to Kerala,Karnataka, Rajasthan,Chhattisgarh and West Bengal,which have been reporting asurge in COVID-19 cases, tosupport them in managementof the disease.

The Union Health Ministry

on Friday said these teams willsupport the state towardsstrengthening containment,surveillance, testing, infectionprevention and control mea-sures, and efficient clinicalmanagement of the positivecases. The Central teams shallalso guide in effectively man-aging the challenges related totimely diagnosis and follow

up," it said. Each team compris-es a joint secretary (nodal offi-cer for the respective state), onepublic health expert to lookafter the public health aspects,one clinician to look afterinfection prevention practicesand clinical management pro-tocol being followed by theState. Kerala so far has report-ed 3,17,929 coronavirus infec-

tions which form 4.3 per centof the total cases, the ministrysaid. The cases per millionstand at 8,906. The recoverieshave surged to 2,22,231accounting for a recovery rateof 69.90 per cent. There are94,609 active cases (comprising11.8 per cent of the totalnational figure), the ministrysaid.

US CDC projects2, 40,000 Coviddeaths by Nov 7PNSn WASHHINGTON

In a new ensemble forecast,the US Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention(CDC) has projected up to240,000 Covid-19 deaths inthe country by November 7.

The new national ensem-ble forecast issued onThursday predicted that3,400 to 7,100 new Covid-19deaths will likely be reportedduring the week endingNovember 7, and some229,000 to 240,000 fatalitieswill be reported by that date,reports Xinhua news agency.

Trends in numbers offuture reported deaths areuncertain or predicted toremain stable in the otherstates and territories, said theprojection. Much of the UScontinues to report an upwardtrend in Covid-19 cases, with59,761 new confirmed casesand 831 new deaths reportednationwide on Wednesdayalone, according to CDC data.

SC rejects PIL seekingdismissal of Maha govt

PNSn NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court Fridayrefused to entertain a PILseeking dismissal of theUddhav Thackeray-led MahaVikas Aghadi government inMaharashtra and impositionof President's Rule in the state.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices A SBopanna and VRamasubramanian said that itcould not entertain prayerslike these. "As a petitioner, youare at liberty to approach thePresident, but do not comehere," the top court said in ahearing conducted via videoconferencing.

One Vikram Gehlot hadfiled the PIL seeking dismissal

of the government allegingthat the affairs of the state werenot being carried out in linewith constitutional and legalprovisions.

The plea had referred to theexamples of actor SushantSingh Rajput's death and thedemolition of part ofBollywood actress KanganaRanaut's property as examplesof poor law and order in thestate.

During the brief hearing,the top court took strong noteof the submissions and askedas to how it can be said that theConstitution is not being fol-lowed in the state because ofsome incidents. Maharashtrais a big state, said the bench.

USE OF PLAIN ENGLISH

PTI, the largestnews agency ofthe country, isrun by a Boardcomprisingowners andproprietors ofkey newspapergroups and is anon-profit trust

PNSn BIHAR

Political culture has undergonea drastic change under PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, withparties and governments pre-senting their report cards dur-ing elections instead of leaderspromoting casteism and hatredthrough their speeches, BJPchief J P Nadda said on Friday.Addressing an election rallyhere, Nadda also listed out aslew of development measureslaunched by the Modi govern-ment for Bihar.

Before 2014, political lead-ers used to hurl accusations ateach other...they promotedcasteism, enmity, and tried tobreak society through theirspeeches. Political culture ofthe country has changed since

Narendra Modi came to power.Now they are showing to peo-ple the report card of the workthey have done," he said.

Referring to the priorityModi attached to Bihar, he saidthe prime minister had anno-unced a Rs 1.25 lakh crorepackage for the state in 2015,besides Rs 40,000 crore forinfrastructure development.

A cautious and watchfulsociety recognises such (cau-

tious and watchful) leader andappreciates him. A watchfulsociety knows its interests andis ready to protect itself fromany harm, Nadda said, seekinga clear mandate for the NDAin the state assembly elec-tions. Referring to the poten-tial market that Bhagalpurisilk has, the BJP presidentasked the youth to raise itsbrand value in line with theprime minister's "vocal forlocal" appeal. He assertedBihar saw all-round progressunder the NDA government.Rail, road, health and educa-tion sectors benefited in a bigway. Nadda also lauded theprime minister and the armedforces for strongly defendingthe country's frontiers againstChina and Pakistan.

COVID-19: Central teams sent to Kerala,Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh & WB

The character assassina-tions and defamatorycampaigns, witnessedon some televisionchannels by some

anchors and reporters against indi-vidual film personalities and theMumbai movie industry, haveunderstandably been strongly con-demned. While the public responsehas mainly been focussed on thecampaign and its gross violation ofthe principles of fair play, there isa compelling need to examine thecharacter of television itself as amedium and its impact on society.

As a medium, television com-bines unfolding visuals with verbalnarratives, besides bringing distantevents to the homes of viewers, giv-ing them a feeling of being in themidst of an unfolding developmentor its aftermath, with all its sightsand sounds. In contrast, radio,which provides only audioaccounts, does not give the feelingof being there and seeing it all. Notsurprisingly, television coverageattracts more people than radioreportage and provokes moreintense public reaction than radio.

The question arises: What arethe consequences of its impact?One frequently heard in the 1960sthat television coverage broughtthe horrors of the Vietnamese Warinto American drawing roomsand was a major factor in trigger-ing massive protest demonstra-tions and rioting, hastening theUnited States’ withdrawal fromVietnam. Why go so far? We arenow witness to the investigationsinto the rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl in Hathras, UttarPradesh, in the aftermath of anationwide uproar sparked prin-cipally by television reports.

Pieces in the print media —daily newspapers and magazines—have cost important people theirperches. Newspaper reports havecaused riots, violent demonstra-tions and general strikes,paralysing entire countries. This,however, was when newspapersand magazines constituted thedominant media. Now televisionhas replaced them. This is theresult not only of the pronouncededge that audio-visual reportagehas over audio or print coverage,but of the fact that reports appearon television the same evening —or even earlier. An event hasoccurred, and by the time it is innewspapers the next morning,people already know the broad

contours of what has happened.There is, however, a funda-

mental difference in popularresponse to television and printmedium coverage respectively.It lies in not just the actions theytrigger but the mindsets theycreate. This, in turn, followsfrom a basic difference in thecharacter of the two. Visualimages constitute the USP oftelevision. An image is recog-nised; the mental processinvolved in cognition. A print-ed word is first decoded fromthe combination of the lettersthat constitute it, and is thenlinked by a mental process —association — to an object or animage. The ability to associateis central to the process ofrational thinking and the latteris the principal instrument inthe formulation of systems ofthought or critical examinationof the import of events.

Cognition primarily involvesvisual identification. It is not anact of intelligence though it canlead to one when externallystimulated. Much depends onthe nature of the stimulus. InAmusing Ourselves to Death:Public Discourse in the Age ofShow Business, Neil Postmanstates that entertainment is“the supra-ideology of all dis-course on television. No matterwhat is depicted and from whatpoint of view, the overarchingpresumption is that it is therefor our amusement and plea-sure.” This is hardly surprising.A very large section of peoplewants entertainment. Henceprogrammes that entertain earn

higher Target Rating Points(TRPs) than those that do not,and advertisers, who sustainmedia, also prefer these.

There are doubtless televisionchannels that consciously try totread a different path and comeup with programmes thatinform and promote sociallyand politically relevant dis-course. But even their pro-grammes have an ambience ofentertainment as they are pre-ceded, followed and punctuat-ed by music and advertise-ments featuring visuals ofattractive models and productsin the most arresting possiblesettings. For example, theadvertisement of a car or amotorbike often shows it inshining colours, driven by abeautiful model or her equallyattractive male companion,through a picturesque land-scape. People enjoy watchingthese, sometimes more than theprogrammes themselves.

This writer has no quarrelwith entertainment. Life wouldbe terribly boring without it. Healso believes that each person isentitled to his/her brand ofentertainment within the lim-its prescribed by law and a veryliberal definition of decency.There is, however, a darkdimension to what is happen-ing now. Viewers, who remainglued to television sets whilesome anchors, reporters andtalking heads gloat over the tra-vails of film personalities andberate them hour after hour,behave in the same manner asthe crowds in ancient Rome’s

Colosseum, who roared indelight as a gladiator killedanother or a lion. By catering tothem, the mindset that televi-sion engenders is that of want-ing to be perennially and bru-tally entertained. The result isa progressive coarsening ofsensibilities and erosion of thevirtues of compassion, toleranceand a sense of fair-play.

This is the most detrimentaleffect of television as a mediumthat needs to be countered.The print media is a very differ-ent cup of tea. It is the outcomeof the written culture. AlvinGouldner states in The Dialecticof Ideology and Technology: TheOrigins, Grammar and Future ofIdeology, that writing confers apermanence to statements thatverbal articulation does not. Heargues that it also confers a cer-tain finality. A mistake madeduring a conversation may becorrected then and there. Aprinted word cannot be easilyrecalled for correction oncewidely circulated. One, there-fore, carefully seeks to avoidmistakes, embarrassing state-ments and faulty argumentswhile writing. This contributesto the drafting of informed andreasoned texts.

Besides, while one can inter-rupt and resume a conversation,one cannot do so in a writtentext where one has to proceedfrom premise to conclusion,rationally and convincingly, stepby step — a process that leadsto rational articulation and crit-ical thought.

Doubtless, written communi-

cation lacks the advantages thata speaker has at a lecture.He/she can convey a great dealthrough gestures, facial expres-sions and body movements; alistener/ viewer can also gleanconsiderable information aboutthe speaker and what he/she issaying and stands for. Equally,excessive focus on the speakercan distract attention from thesubstance of the speech. Thereis no such distraction when itcomes to looking at a printedtext. The reader can concentratesolely on the latter, absorbing itscontents and reflecting on thesame. Reading conduces tothought and thought spurs fur-ther thought. This fact, as wellas the capacity for rationalargumentation from premise toconclusion that the print medi-um promotes, has led to the riseof great systems of thoughtwhich have come to be knownas ideologies.

That is another story. What isimportant now is the fact thatthe process of critical thinkingcan — and often does — medi-ate in a person’s internalisationof the information generated bythe print medium. Given thisand some other of its attribut-es, those associated with it havea responsibility in counteringthe socially and morally devas-tating effect of the kind ofdeplorable fare that some chan-nels are churning out. Theprocess must begin by makingpeople aware.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and anauthor)

When the Railway Budget was presented sepa-rately until recently, concerned Ministers usedto shower their largesse upon their home States

as well as those of their friends. These usually includ-ed the construction of factories, yards, the creation ofnew zones and additional stops for trains. For exam-ple, the Rajdhani Express to Howrah started stoppingat Etawah when Mulayam Singh Yadav propped up theGovernment in the mid-1990s. But as the middle-class-es desert express trains for the convenience of flights,now increasingly affordable and much, much faster, theRailway Board has smartly decided that its post-pan-

demic timetable, as passenger services return to normal, will not only do away with 600mail and express trains but also upwards of 10,000 halts for many fast trains. While thereis no doubt that the Railways do provide connectivity to interior locations of the country,there needs to be a serious re-planning of long-distance train services. It would makemuch more sense for fewer long-distance trains that can be coupled with better region-al services to connect small towns to big cities as is being done in the National CapitalRegion (NCR) with the new Regional Railway. Of course, not everyone can afford flights.In fact, as we all learnt during the lockdown, many of India’s poorest migrants can bare-ly afford trains and the Railways must continue to remain an option for those at the low-est rungs of the economic ladder. At the same time, they have to also become morecompetitive with airlines and make sense for those who have taken wings. Nobody wantsto spend 16 hours in a train when a flight, even with travelling to and from the airportand security, will take under six hours and offer multiple time options.

At the same time, less passenger congestion on the tracks will help the Railwaysmake hay, thanks to superior freight services. Many car companies are now using theRailways to send their products from their factories to major hubs as this is more effi-cient and better for the environment. These services don’t just keep the economy run-ning smoothly but also help the Railways subsidise passenger services. There will bepoliticians who will scream and shout about this decision but this is actually a stepforward and the Railways have to be complimented.

For years together, China’s intimidatory tactics andsurreptitious salami slicing of territories had goneunchallenged along our Himalayan border. A logis-

tically disadvantaged India meant that China could keepa fairly low-cost vigilance operation and easily push itsultimate aim of controlling the Karakoram, Central Asiaand beyond with Pakistan as the key conduit. But thathas changed recently. Irrespective of the clash at Galwan,infrastructure development in border areas, particular-ly Ladakh, has been ramped up on our side over the lastfew years. Better roads have meant that we can rushsupplies and reinforcements to our frontier posts and

amass a presence quickly, something which was China’s forte for long. With its strategicedge compromised and now that our troops have shown in Galwan that they are as adeptin mountain warfare and capable of giving a bloody nose to marauders, Beijing has realisedthat its ambush tactics can no longer “shock and awe” us. And given that the nature ofthe Line of Actual Control (LAC) is not codified despite India’s best efforts in forcing Chinato a discussion on it, perceptional differences mean India is now more vociferous aboutits rightful claims, too. Post-Galwan, it is determined to not give up its acquired positionsand ridges and stare down at China with the same gusto. This explains the rather hyper-bolic and impassioned war cry by Chinese President Xi Jinping, asking his troops to beready for war, while his administration objected to the opening of 44 bridges in Ladakhand Arunachal Pradesh, saying they were “the root cause for tension between the twosides.” This came barely a day after Beijing declared that it considered both Ladakh andArunachal Pradesh illegal. Of course, India categorically rejected this latest missive, say-ing China has no locus standi to comment on its internal matters. This even as Ministerfor External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that since peace talks with China werestill on, he would not like to hazard an assessment. But his measured response was con-tradicted by Xi’s provocation, clearly as part of his relentless effort to wear us out in thewar of perception. For the first time, if anything, this betrays China’s anxieties over whatit had assumed would be a cakewalk, namely browbeating India. It may even tempt Indiainto a limited theatre of war and then try to extract a give-and-take formula but it is get-ting exasperated with us refusing to bite the bait. The Siachenisation of Ladakh would costit, too. Hence the stepped up rhetoric in the hope of getting some leeway in Ladakh. Atbest, the diplomacy is just a diversionary tactic as Beijing will not forfeit this geographi-cal wedge between Gilgit-Baltistan in the west (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), where it isinvested in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and Aksai Chin in the east. Itis an irritant to its regional supremacy, strategically and economically. And it wants an unhin-dered run of the highway from Xinjiang to Tibet, 179 km of which is under Indian shad-ow. As it is, by agreeing to a buffer zone, we have ceded our right to monitor forwardareas in the Pangong Tso region. We should be wary of the fact that the People’s LiberationArmy (PLA), which has been pitching tents, building roads and marking territories since2013 and which takes orders from Xi himself, intends to keep the LAC hot. And challengeus routinely on a battle of nerves, hoping to coerce us in a bloodless war if possible.

India is already working on a multi-pronged global approach to rein in the dragon’sterritorial and economic imperialism. It is challenging China in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR), neutralising the latter’s maritime conduits and engaging with South and SoutheastAsian nations that have been held hostage by Beijing’s debt-trapping economic bailouts.And to counter our greedy neighbour’s “string of pearls” diplomacy, which means hav-ing strong military and economic ties with all our neighbouring nations and laying siegeto our national interests, we, too, have rolled the dice. The Government is bolstering defencecooperation in the neighbourhood, leasing out a submarine to Myanmar and arming it withtorpedoes. We have begun ramping up the naval strategy around the Malacca Straits, whichhappens to be China’s trade and strategic corridor. India has deployed its vessels to keepa check on any activity of the Chinese Navy and is planning to maintain hawkish patrolsthrough autonomous underwater vessels, unmanned systems and sensors. It has got moreactive in the Quad initiative with the US, Japan and Australia and is using its internationalgoodwill as a nation that respects “rule-based order” to build a case against China’s “wolfwarrior” tactics. Diplomatically, India should be transactional in its approach to China andlay down in no uncertain terms that the latter’s avarice for global domination would onlypush the second-largest Asian entity towards the US-led bloc. In fact, we have to be overtabout our strategic partnership with the US but it wouldn’t be too invested in a theatrewhere it is not the dominant player. Besides, it may not want India to become too formi-dable in its quest to blunt China. Russia, for all its deepest desire to counter-balance China’sgrowing heft and leverage itself vis-a-vis the US, is compromised by economic depen-dencies. So, India is pretty much on its own and has to use every multi-national forum,alliance and bilateral ties to make enough noise about the asymmetric relationship withChina. And it must girdle up with nations that are directly under our neighbour’s threat inthe region to stand up and be counted.

China's bluster

Caste-based atrocitiesSir — Amid the nationwide out-rage over the rape-murder caseof the 19-year-old Dalit womanin Hathras, three minor sisters,belonging to the same commu-nity, were attacked with acid inGonda, Uttar Pradesh. The sis-ters, aged 17, 12 and eight, weresleeping on the second floor oftheir house in Paraspur area,when someone threw acid onthem in the wee hours ofOctober 13. While the victims’parents rushed to their roomsafter hearing their cries to findthem writhing in pain, the attack-er managed to escape. The policesuspect that someone from theirlocality might have perpetratedthe crime. The eldest sister suf-fered major injuries on her faceand chest while the other twosuffered minor burns on theirhands. So while the StateGovernment and its police areruthlessly trying to save the cul-prits of the Hathras case, thereseems to be no end to caste andgender-based atrocities. TheCentre and the judiciary needto urgently intervene andensure that victims of the Dalitcommunity get justice.

NR Salam Jammu

Kashmir’s futureSir — The release of the formerJammu and Kashmir ChiefMinister and Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP) leader MehboobaMufti, after her detention formore than a year under thePublic Safety Act (PSA) ahead ofthe Centre’s decision to abrogateArticle 370, was needlesslydelayed. But, as it seems now, it

has dawned on the ruling dispen-sation that the presence of thelocal leaders is crucial to nego-tiate the future of the UnionTerritory (UT). Even after a yearof restrictions on the citizens, theCentre still lacks a clear roadmap.Rather, the blanket hold on thePress, the promulgation ofSection 144 and its unendingnature are a poor reflection ongovernance. This has only caused

damage to the region’s economyand worse, our national fabric.Previous Governments at theCentre and J&K were not naive,they carried a delicate politicalsuitcase for decades.

Now, the Centre has twooptions — either run an inani-mate State to all-round disillu-sionment or gather its wits andacumen to infuse the real mean-ing of integration of the UT with

the pulse of the nation, with orwithout Article 370 and anyother legalese. Winning overthe hearts of the locals is crucialfor a democratic bulwark againstfurther socio-political attritionand an invitation to outsiders tomeddle in the region.

R NarayananMumbai

Finding solutionsSir — The overall air quality level(AQI) of Delhi is deteriorating bythe day. On October 16, theSupreme Court constituted aone-member committee, head-ed by Justice Madan B Lokur, tocarry out physical surveillance offarm fires in Punjab, Haryanaand western Uttar Pradesh caus-ing air pollution in Delhi and theNational Capital Region (NCR)and submit a report after theDussehra vacation. The commit-tee will also suggest additionalmethods for preventing theburning of stubble. This comesas a ray of hope as Delhi contin-ues to battle both air pollutionand the pandemic.

Devendra KhuranaBhopal

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionHYDERABAD | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 17, 2020

06

Television and its wartsThe print medium has the responsibility of countering the socially and morally

devastating effect of the deplorable fare that some channels are churning out

The events (Australia's three biggest golftournaments) rely on significant supportfrom players and tours around the world.Given the quarantine restrictions, webelieve the field strength of all threeevents would be severely compromised.

PGA of Australia chief executive —Gavin Kirkman

Safety must take precedence

AGovernor is supposed to be politically neutral andnon-partisan. But Maharashtra Governor BhagatSingh Koshyari made no effort to conceal his polit-

ical preference in his letter to Chief Minister UddhavThackeray calling for an early re-opening of templesin the State. His queries to the CM that if he had “sud-denly turned secular” and had any “divine premonitionto keep the temples closed” said it all. Simply put, theletter was unworthy of a Governor.

As a Governor, Koshyari is supposed to know thatsecularism is an inalienable part of the basic structureof the Constitution. Sadly, the Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) pracharak in him got the better of him.Koshyari gave the CM lessons on Hindutva, underscor-ing the fact that the former himself needed lessons onsecularism. His fealty to the ruling party at the Centre,as against his oath of allegiance to the Constitution,seems to have closed his mind to the bigger need forsafety. Koshyari’s missive to the CM, arguing for re-opening of temples, was not backed by scientific advice.

The containment of the pandemic must take precedenceover visiting places of worship, be they temples,mosques or churches. It would be the height of follyto let people congregate in a place of worship in thispandemic, unmindful of its possible consequences.

G David Milton Maruthancode

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

New timetable

Beijing will continue to make tall claims, hoping to coerce us in abloodless war. New Delhi must encircle it in the neighbourhood

The Indian Railways plan to reduce mail and express trainservices has angered some people but it is a necessary step

HIRANMAY KARLEKAR

India is fighting a strong battle against malnutritionduring COVID crisis with the help of farmers, anganwadi workers, scientists and ASHA workers.

Prime Minister—Narendra Modi

The three panels will make recommendations for pre-primary, secondary andhigher secondary educationafter studying the infrastructure available in Goa.

Goa CM—Pramod Sawant

Peaceful transfer? Iabsolutely want that.But ideally, I don't wantto transfer, because Iwant to win. I want it tobe an honest election.

US President —Donald Trump

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

Democracy notdead in Bolivia

GWYNNE DYER

Morales’ time is up but the MAS under Arce’sleadership could still win this poll and if it

doesn’t then Mesa might become President

The quotation is usually given as, “Power corrupts. Absolutepower corrupts absolutely.” However, English historian, politi-cian and writer Lord Acton’s original remark went on to say:

“Great men are almost always bad men.” And so they are. Thisis not to say that all bad men in power are also great men. PresidentAlexander Lukashenko of Belarus, in power for 26 years but cur-rently fighting eviction after another rigged election, is clearly a badman, but he is also a petty man of no discernible merit. Evo Morales,President of Bolivia for 14 years, is certainly a great man: The firstperson of indigenous descent ever elected to lead a country whereonly five per cent of the population is of European origin. But hewas ousted from power late last year, and he deserved to be. (Heis sitting out the October 18 election in exile in Argentina.)

This has been taken by most people elsewhere (and not justpeople on the Left) to mean that there was a “coup” in Bolivia lastyear, and that democracy there is in danger, or even at an end. Thatimpression was reinforced by the fact that the caretaker Presidentfor the past 11 months has been an extreme Right-wing politician.But it wasn’t really a coup; more of a car-crash. The presidentialelection last year was followed by weeks of popular protests claim-ing that it had been rigged to give Morales a narrow victory in thefirst round of voting.

Morales resigned when an investigation by the Organisationof American States reported that there had been “serious irregu-larities” in the vote and “clear manipulations” of the voting sys-tem.” That was the right thing to do, but then his party, the MovementTowards Socialism (MAS), made an incredible blunder.

It boycotted an ad-hoc meeting held by the Opposition par-ties, the Catholic Church and representatives of the European Union(EU) to choose an interim President. All the senior MAS officialshaving resigned together with Morales, the choice fell on the sec-ond Vice-President of the Senate, an obscure politician called JeanineAñez, who turned out to be a monster.

Within a week, journalists were digging up racist tweets in whichshe called Morales a “poor Indian” and declared an indigenous newyear celebration “Satanic.” In the same week, she fired all the mil-itary top brass, replacing them with her own appointees and gavethe police and soldiers blanket authority to use lethal force againstprotesters. At least 28 were killed in the State-sponsored violence.

Añez seemed well on the way to enshrining the rule of theextreme Right. Morales was banned from seeking the presidencyagain and in May she declared that she would run for the presi-dency herself when the election was re-run. But now that election,much postponed because of COVID-19, has come round at last— and she has just withdrawn her candidacy.

It turns out that mourning for the death of Bolivian democra-cy has been a bit premature. The leading candidate in this elec-tion is still from the MAS: Luis Arce, a former Economy Ministerwho oversaw the nationalisation programme under Morales. Arce’smain opponent is the same man Morales faced last year: Ex-President Carlos Mesa, a former journalist and professor who isCentre-Left politically. Añez withdrew to give the other hard-Rightcandidate, Luis Fernando Camacho, a better chance of gettingthrough to the second round, but he still probably won’t make it.

The second round remains the key issue. The rules say thatthe leading candidate wins in the first round if s/he gets 40 per centof the vote, and is at least ten points ahead of the nearest rival. Ifnot, the two leading candidates go through to the second round— but then the supporters of all the losing candidates will prob-ably unite behind the challenger to defeat the socialist (who is invari-ably the leader in the first round).

Morales did not have a 10-point lead over Mesa last year when85 per cent of the votes had been counted — but then the “quickcount” stopped for no clear reason for a full day, and when it resumedMorales ended up with a 10.1 per cent lead. So no second round:Morales wins. That’s when the mass protests started, and right-ly so. An unexplained halt of that duration in the vote-counting alwaysmeans they are fixing the outcome. Given Morales’ past record —he held a referendum to end the two-term limit on the presidency,lost it, then got an MAS-dominated court to set the referendumresult aside and end term limits — not too many people were will-ing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Morales’ time is up, but the MAS under Arce’s leadership couldstill win this election, and if it doesn’t then Mesa will probably becomePresident, which would not be a disaster either. Democracy is notdead in Bolivia.

(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Growing Pains: The Future ofDemocracy and Work.’)

The term “hybrid regime” hasgained increasing currency inPakistan among analysts and

politicians. It is specifically used toexplain the existential nature of thecurrent PTI-led coalitionGovernment, which came to powerafter the July 2018 polls. The elec-tions were severely criticised byvarious parties for being “rigged,”whereas a December 9, 2018 reportby the Free and Fair ElectionNetwork (FAFEN) found “variousirregularities” in the electoralprocess.

The Government’s critics insistthat institutions such as the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) — atthe behest of the so-called “military-establishment” — tampered with the

voting and counting processes. Theyclaim that this was done to aid ImranKhan’s Centre-Right PTI, so it couldgain just enough seats to form acoalition Government, especially atthe expense of the country’s twoother mainstream parties, the cen-trist PML-N and the liberal-Left,PPP. Over the decades, the relation-ship of these two outfits with the mil-itary-establishment has continued todeteriorate.

Observers and analysts, whosubscribe to this view, use the term“hybrid regime” in a negative lightto explain the current Governmentas an artificially bolstered civilianvessel of the military establishment,propped up so that the latter can sus-tain its political influence within asemblance of democracy and with-out the controversial complexities ofdirect intervention.

However, interestingly, eventhough the Government and itssupporters rubbish such claims,there have also been those withinthem who have used the term in apositive manner, to mean that theGovernment and military-estab-lishment are on the same page.

Nevertheless, “hybrid regime” asa concept and reality has comeunder increasing scrutiny and crit-icism by political scientists. But thiscriticism was missing when theHungarian sociologist ElemérHankiss first used the term. Hankissused it in the 1990s to describe thecommunist regime of János Kádár inHungary. Kádár was appointed bythe then Soviet Union as Hungary’spremier in 1956, after a popularuprising in Budapest against the pre-ceding Communist set-up wascrushed by Soviet forces.

Hankiss treaded a fine linebetween the democratic aspirationsof the protestors and Soviet-styleauthoritarianism by introducingcivil, cultural and economic reformsthat were a departure from the pre-vious “Stalinist” model of authoritar-ianism. But he maintained the polit-ical supremacy and monopoly of theHungarian Communist Party.

However, Hankiss’ term wasquickly picked up by European andAmerican political scientists to meana transitional period in former com-munist countries and non-commu-nist dictatorships, which began to

adopt increasing democratic reformsand mechanisms after the end of theCold War in 1991. Till the 1980s,countries going through this processwere described as “transitionaldemocracies.” But this term wasreplaced with “hybrid regimes” inthe post-Cold War period.

In an essay for the January 2012issue of the Journal of World Politics,the American political scientist,Yonatan Morse, writes that initially,there was an element of optimism inthe term, because most political sci-entists believed that hybrid regimeswould eventually evolve into becom-ing full-fledged liberal democracies.Their optimism can be understoodin the context of an unprecedentedoccurrence at the end of the ColdWar, which saw numerous authori-tarian systems across the worlderode and/or adopt democratic elec-toral and constitutional tools andreforms.

In 2002, the American authorand political analyst ThomasCarothers nudged political scientiststo study the term “hybrid regime”without the optimism attached to it,and without the assumption that

such regimes would transform intobecoming liberal democracies.Second, hybrid regimes were nothomogenous. After Carothers’ essay(published in the June 2002 issue ofthe Journal of Democracy) a concep-tual shift occurred in the study of“hybrid regimes.”

According to Morse, the com-mon practice and theme in most“hybrid regimes” is “electoral author-itarianism” and that’s how most ofthem are now understood (asopposed to earlier, when they wereseen as political systems transition-ing to liberal democracy). In elec-toral authoritarianism, elections donot stand up to democratic standardsof being free and fair.

Such elections continue to,directly or indirectly, keep an author-itarian constant in power, but give itdemocratic “legitimacy” and theauthority to alter the constitution tosustain its monopoly over largeareas of power that it had earlieraccumulated as a non-electoral enti-ty, before the system went hybrid.

This arrangement can be seen incountries where once-dictatorialcliques reinvented themselves as

“popularly elected” entities throughsham elections. They pay lip-serviceto democratic rights and manipulatethe judiciary and an “elected”Parliament to do their bidding.Examples in this respect include for-mer “strongmen” in certain Africancountries and in former Sovietrepublics in Central Asia, andVladimir Putin in Russia.

Another manifestation of elec-toral authoritarianism is when apowerful State institution, such as themilitary, gets one of its high-rank-ing former members elected througha questionable voting process andcontinues to manipulate electionsand alter the Constitution to keephim there (e.g. Egypt’s Abdel Fattahel-Sisi).

Or the institution may nourishthe rise of an easily-manoeuvred andmanageable “democrat,” and aidhim to come to power through atampered election (for instanceallegedly in Pakistan).

Yet another manifestation iswhen a genuinely popularfigure/party is elected through a fairelection but, once it becomes anestablished incumbent, it begins to

alter the Constitution and laws to aidits continuation (Erdogan inTurkey).

All these manifestations of“hybrid regimes” claim to be demo-cratic but resort to undemocraticpractices, including usurping civilrights, using strong-arm tactics andState machinery to browbeat theOpposition. However, according toMorse, electoral authoritarianismand/or “hybrid regimes” can becomeproblematic for those who imposeand retain them.

Morse writes that electoralauthoritarianism can be a “double-edged sword” because even theprocess of sham elections has thepotential of creating new power cen-tres and can also give the Oppositionaccess to certain constitutional toolswhich can be turned against “hybridregimes” — especially if, because ofan assortment of economic, politi-cal or existential threats and chal-lenges, the polity pours out on thestreets to protest. One can thus con-clude that a “hybrid regime”, such asthe one currently in Pakistan,inevitably heads that way.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

Hybrid regimes and their electoral authoritarianism However, even sham polls can create new power centres and give the Opposition access to constitutional tools that it can turn against such a govt

NADEEM PARACHA

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 17, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

After the Central and State governments, it isthe Urban Local Body (ULB) or panchayatthat is the closest to the people. The 74th

Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 recognisedmunicipalities even though the MunicipalCorporation of Chennai had existed since 1688 andthat of Kolkata and Mumbai had been there since1726. Local government is a subject in the State listand though the 1992 Amendment provided con-stitutional status to municipalities, the prerogativeof the respective State legislatures to determine thepowers, functions and responsibilities of munici-pal bodies was maintained. So even though the legit-imacy of the ULBs had been ensured, the amend-ment by itself did not lead to any structural changein the municipal system.

States have built upon this requirement of pro-viding governance through local governments,thereby taking it closer to the people, albeit differ-ently. The 18 functions, which could be assignedto ULBs as per Schedule 12 of the Constitution, havebeen handled differently by different State govern-ments. Some have transferred all these functionsbut many have done it partially. And even when thisis done, the issue of funds, functions and functionar-ies fully getting assigned to the ULBs continues toremain live because there is a lot missing in thisregard.

The Central Government has made efforts —through the linking of Central schemes for urbanareas with the reform agenda — to ensure trans-fer of all these functions to the urban bodies andto make them effective in line with the principleof subsidiarity. Why cannot our ULBs be fullyresponsible for key areas of activity affecting the livesof each one of us, such as water supply, waste man-agement, drainage, sewage, city transport and e-gov-ernance? One reason cited as to why the urban bod-ies are not able to do this is that since theConstitutional Amendment did not lay down therevenue base for the ULBs and the State FinanceCommission (SFC) mechanism has not workedeffectively to bring about change in this regard,empowering them to improve own fund generationand ensuring better devolution of finances from theStates are major requirements. As an example, it maybe mentioned that municipalities in Brazil enjoybroad autonomy in regard to levying taxes and theirConstitution defines a system of unconditionaltransfers between the federal, state and municipalgovernments.

It is worth considering whether like the Unionand State lists in the Constitution, we can have alocal bodies’ list as well. If local bodies are to playa more active and accountable role in the case offunctions assigned to them, it is important that themunicipal cadre structure as it exists today under-goes a substantial change.

These are days of specialised work and each areaof municipal administration needs competentprofessionals to oversee performance and to planappropriately for the future. A typical city corpo-ration in a State like Karnataka today has five mainheads next to the Municipal Commissioner, name-ly the chief accounts officer, chief engineer, revenueofficer, chief development officer and chief healthofficer. Solid waste management is a complex sub-ject today, needing proper leadership. Raisingresources, tying up for public-private partnerships,environment management, urban mobility are allareas which require competent professional lead-

ership at the local body level. Norms ofstaffing pattern, too, require review. Oururban bodies should be able to focus onthe best possible service delivery and haveto be accountable for the same.

The importance of a shift frominfrastructure creation to delivery of ser-vice outcomes has to be recognised at thelocal level. Are our local bodies in a posi-tion today to talk confidently about say,water supply, in terms of coverage, percapita supply, extent of continuity of sup-ply, quality, metering, extent of non-rev-enue water, cost recovery, efficiency incollection of water charges, efficiency inthe redressal of complaints and all suchbasic matters? Can they present before theresidents the roadmap for making wateravailable 24x7 as per norms, to all thehouseholds of the city/town representingfuture requirements as well?

The 13th Finance Commission hadsaid that State Governments must grad-ually put in place standards for all essen-tial services provided by local bodies andthe 14th Finance Commission repeatedthe point that ULBs will have to measureand publish service level benchmarks forbasic services.

Here, let me refer to one global exam-ple of how accountable the public serviceutility overseas feels to the consumer. Thehead of a private water utility in Londonaccepted through a public statement in2019 that it had not met the water leak-age target for the year. And finding itunacceptable, apologised wholehearted-ly and assured that the penalty it will payfor this, as determined by the water reg-ulator, will be transferred to the customersthrough their bills from the next year.That is how a utility is subjected to thenorms of accountability of performance.

In order to take local governmentscloser to the people, there are two mea-sures, which if made effective and func-tional, can make a big difference as far asmaking local governments “vocal.” TheConstitution amendment provides for

ward committees to be constituted belowthe level of the local body council. EachState Legislature has to make provisionsfor this and see to it that they becomefunctional.

The Centre had circulated to theStates a model Nagar Raj Bill, which hadlisted their functions, their rights andduties as well. Such ward committees canplay a proactive role in preparing wardbudgets, supervision and coordination ofvarious development works, ensuringuniversal access to the key public servicesand overall, this mechanism can be con-verted into one where people of the areacan proactively contribute to the devel-opment agenda. It is for the States to leg-islate for their constitution and makethem effective. Most of the States have nottaken this agenda forward. Recently, theperformance audit of Karnataka localbodies by the Comptroller and AuditorGeneral has pointed out that ward com-mittees have not been constituted in anyof the city corporations except inBengaluru.

Yet another step which can take localgovernments closer to the people isconstitution of area sabhas at the level ofeach polling station or a group of pollingstations, as decided by each StateGovernment through a legislation.

The community participation law,which each State Government wasexpected to legislate as part of the reformagenda under the national urban mission,was to make such a provision. But exceptfor a very limited number of States likeAndhra Pradesh, the agenda has not beentaken forward. In making local “vocal”,both ward committees and area sabhascan play a key role in generating andmaintaining basic data/information aboutthe residents, constantly monitoring ser-vice delivery, reporting deficiencies, pro-viding a network which can promptly andefficiently highlight issues and require-ments, encouraging citizen participationand promoting local leadership — the

very essence of local governance.Visualise a situation where, like in the

context of the current pandemic, the areasabhas could have provided inputs to thelocal body administration about peopleneeding help, who are single, disabled, liv-ing alone, needing constant medicalattention, migrants and workers who arestranded and need support, linkagesrequired with supply of certain essentialitems locally not available, deficiencies inservice delivery and so on. This in turncould have positively influenced moreinformed decision-making at the localbody level.

One such proactive example whichwas noticed recently was the Gurugramcity administration utilising the otherwiseidle city buses to go to different parts ofthe city to provide provisions and suchessential items as per a pre-publicisedrotation arrangement.

Local governments can be made“vocal” as far as areas of local adminis-tration are concerned. This will give peo-ple the feeling of being participative in theprocess of governance. States have to takethe initiative to legislate for these insti-tutions at the local level. It is time that theState Governments recognise the effec-tive role local bodies can play in areas ear-marked for them. Some changes have tocome about as regards to resource posi-tion, professionalisation of cadres andencouraging the growth of both localaccountability and improved perfor-mance at that level.

The Swachh Bharat Mission hasproved how useful a contribution localleadership can make when it gets active-ly involved. With formal mechanismscoming into existence, it should be pos-sible to better implement goals of schemeslike the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation andUrban Transformation in terms of the pri-mary purpose of covering all householdswith water supply and sewerage.

(The writer is a former Secretary inthe Ministry of Urban Development)

M RAMACHANDRAN

THE SWACHHBHARAT MISSION

HAS PROVED HOWUSEFUL A

CONTRIBUTIONLOCAL LEADERSHIP

CAN MAKE WHEN IT

GETS ACTIVELYINVOLVED. WITH

FORMALMECHANISMSCOMING INTOEXISTENCE, IT

SHOULD BEPOSSIBLE TO

BETTER IMPLEMENT

GOALS OF SCHEMES LIKE THE

ATAL MISSION FORREJUVENATION

AND URBANTRANSFORMATION

IN TERMS OF COVERING ALLHOUSEHOLDS WITH WATERSUPPLY AND

SEWERAGE

Make local governance vocalIf local bodies are to play a more active role, it is important that the municipal

cadre structure as it exists today undergoes a substantial change

PEOPLE SELLING POISONOUS SUBSTANCES ARE ENEMIES

OF SOCIETY. THEY SHOULD BE PUNISHED. EFFORTS

SHOULD BE MADE TO SEND THEM TO THE GALLOWS.

—MADHYA PRADESH CHIEF MINISTER

SHIVRAJ SINGH CHOUHAN

WITH THE RETURN OF THE SHIVRAJ GOVERNMENT IN

THE STATE, LIQUOR MAFIA, LAND MAFIA, DRUG MAFIA,

ALL TYPES OF MAFIA HAVE BECOME ACTIVE AGAIN.

—CONGRESS LEADER

KAMAL NATH

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 17, 2020 Money 08

INDIA CORNER

Tea exporters fear dip in exportvolume in current year

Indian tea exporters fear that there will be a drop in export volumein the current year due to higher prices available in the domestic

market, particularly of the CTC variety. The exporters alsocomplained about the lack of availability of shipping containers dueto fall in imports which has also led to a steep rise in freight rates.Chairman of Indian Tea Exporters Association (ITEA) AnshumanKanoria said that exports last year was around 252 millionkilograms as per Tea Board data. "But this year we are fearing thatthe export volume will dip to 180 million to 185 million kilogramsas offtake of orthodox tea by Iran had declined and the CTC varietyis not being able to compete with Kenya and Africa due to highruling domestic prices in India. Kanoria said that Iran is the largestimporter of orthodox variety from India which was 55 millionkilograms last year. "But this volume of exports to Iran is going tobe down due to some payment problems with that country. Thisyear exports to Iran will be around 30 million to 35 millionkilograms. We have apprised the commerce ministry of theproblem", Kanoria added.

HCL Tech Q2 net profit up 18.5 pc,to hire up to 9k freshers in H2

IT firm HCL Technologies onFriday posted 18.5 per cent rise

in September quarter net profit atRs 3,142 crore, and said it islooking at hiring up to 9,000freshers in the second half of thisfiscal on the back of strong growthmomentum. The Noida-basedcompany had registered a netprofit of Rs 2,651 crore in theyear-ago period (as per US GAAP). Its revenue grew 6.1 per cent toRs 18,594 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 17,528 crorein the year-ago period. "We delivered a solid performance in Q2.Our stellar performance is broad-based across verticals, servicelines, geographies and Mode 1, 2, 3 offerings. Our new bookingsremained very robust, it increased 35 per cent compared to the lastquarter, we won 15 transformational deals," HCL TechnologiesPresident and CEO C Vijayakumar said.

SpiceJet operates 1,000 flights torepatriate 1.75 lakh passengers

Budget carrier SpiceJet on Friday said it has operated over 1,000charter flights to repatriate 1.75 lakh passengers so far in times

of the pandemic. The charter flights included 16 long-haul servicesto and from London, Amsterdam, Toronto and Rome, amongothers, SpiceJet said in a release. Besides, the airline operatedmore than 8,500 cargo flights carrying around 63,000 tonne of vitalsupplies and cargo to and from destinations such as Almaty,Baghdad, Bishkek, Cambodia, Cairo, Cebu, Chad, Colombo, Erbil(Iraq), Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh, Huangzhou, Incheon, Kabul,among others, it said. Of the 1,019 passenger charter flights, asmany as 722 were operated from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Omanand Qatar alone, to bring more than 1.3 lakh Indians back home, itsaid. Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remainsuspended in India. Domestic passenger flights resumed in India onMay 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus-inducedlockdown. “Achieving the 1,000 charter flights milestone andrepatriating 1.75 lakh people is a true reflection of our motivationand commitment," said Shilpa Bhatia, CCO, SpiceJet.

Federal Bank Q2 net profit slips26% to Rs 308 crore

New Delhi, Oct 16 (PTI) FederalBank on Friday reported a 26

per cent decline in its net profit atRs 308 crore in the quarter endedSeptember 2020, on account ofhigher provisions. The privatesector lender had posted a netprofit of Rs 417 crore during theJuly-September quarter a year ago.Total income during the said period rose by 9 per cent to Rs 3,997crore as against Rs 3,675 crore in the same quarter of 2019-20,Federal Bank said in a regulatory filing. Interest income grew 7 percent to Rs 3,488 crore from Rs 3,254 crore. Its gross non-performing assets (NPAs) fell to 2.84 per cent of the grossadvances by end of September 2020 as against 3.07 per cent a yearago. In value terms, it stood at Rs 3,552.19 crore as against Rs3,612.11 crore. Net NPAs came down to 0.99 per cent (Rs1,218.14 crore) as against 1.59 per cent (Rs 1,843.64 crore).Bank's provisions for bad loans and contingencies were raised toRs 592.06 crore for the quarter ended September as against Rs251.77 crore parked aside for the corresponding period a year ago.

‘No exclusivity’ clause dampensrailway route privatisationPNS n MUMBAI

Railway route privatisation isnot as rosy it looks as there isno bar on competition on onehand and demand risks out-weigh the benefits on other,even though the private oper-ator is free to fix the tariffs,warns a report.

Currently, the railways cross-subsidises passengers by over-charging freight to minimise thelosses generated in runningpassenger trains.

Learning from previous pub-lic-private partnership mod-els, the government has draft-ed a new concession frameworkfor private train operators giv-ing them autonomy to fix tar-iffs.

"But absence of a non-com-peting clause for the routeamplifies the cash-flow risks onone hand and on the other bidvariable or the revenue share,resembles ports or airports'concession model, where theexperience has been mixed forconcessionaires," notes IndiaRatings in a report on Friday.

Additionally, the operatorsare obligated to pay haulagecharges towards track mainte-nance, signalling, terminals andothers on a per km basis for 16coaches train and cargo-relatedrisks are higher than anticipat-ed.

Though the concession peri-od is long enough at 35 years,the full exposure to demandrisk poses an elevated risk foroperators and that the corridor

demand/traffic risk combinedwith competition from existingtrains would influence develop-ers' return expectations, says thereport.

Even though the frameworkallows a developer to win morethan one routes opens up theopportunity to commingle mul-tiple projects to raise funding,"however, we expect demandrisks to outweigh the benefits ofpooling in the event of incorrect

demand risk forecasting", itsaid.

While demand risks alsoexist in other sectors like air-ports and ports, introduction ofcompetition elevates the risk inthe case of railways.

"In other sectors, there aresome exclusivity clauses pro-hibiting competition. Absenceof this clause casts higheruncertainty on revenues. Themodel allows only some timeexclusivity from the originatingpoint," it notes.

However, full autonomy tofix the tariff lends strength tothe model, it says adding adynamic pricing model similarto the taxi-aggregator modelwill be a better way, though.

Given the minimum mainte-nance gap of either 31 days or40,000 km of running, theoperator's ability to maintaintrains in a good condition tomeet the key performance indi-cator plays a critical role in theassessment methodology. Thehaulage charges are paid foridentified support from therailways.

After petrol, dieseldemand returns to pre-Covid levelsPNS n NEW DELHI

After petrol, diesel demandhas returned to pre-COVID-19 levels as sales rose 8.8 percent in the first half of Octoberfrom a year ago, preliminaryindustry data showed.

This is the first annualincrease in sales of diesel - themost consumed fuel in thecountry - since the nationimposed lockdown in lateMarch to curb the spread ofthe pandemic.

While demand for petrolhas been more resilient thandiesel due to an increasedpreference for using personalvehicles instead of publictransport to follow distancingnorms, October 1-15 salesnumber showed better thananticipated recovery.

A pent-up demand and theupcoming festive season wasexpected to support fuel salesbut even before that dieselsales rose to 2.65 milliontonnes in the first fortnightof October from 2.43 milliontonne a year back and 2.13million tonne in the first halfof September.

Petrol, which had returnedto pre-COVID levels lastmonth, posted a 1.5 per centrise in sales to 982,000 tonnein the first half of October,up from 967,000 tonne in thesame period a year back and968,000 tonne in the firstfortnight of September.

India witnessed unprece-dented demand destructionafter a nationwide lockdownwas imposed on March 25.Oil demand fell by as muchas 49 per cent in April.

With the easing of restric-tions and reopening of the

economy, fuel demand recov-ered sharply in June fromApril before slowing due tothe reimposition of restric-tions in certain cities becauseof coronavirus and floodingin some regions.

It started to climb backagain in September. Even inSeptember, diesel had showna month-on-month increase.

On Thursday, ShrikantMadhav Vaidya, Chairman ofIndian Oil Corp - thenation's biggest oil firm, hadstated that September recov-ery was faster than expected.

But aviation turbine fuel(ATF) sales continue to beway below normal as airlinesare yet to resume full ser-vices.

ATF sales fell 57 per centto 135,000 tonne in the firsthalf of October from a yearago but was 2.5 per centhigher than 130,000 tonnesold in the first fortnight ofSeptember.

"We see (oil) demand pick-ing up this quarter (October-December) and by the end ofthe current financial year(March 2021), we should beback to pre-COVID levels,"Vaidya had said.

Petrol sales had climbedrapidly because personalmobility was being preferredleading to more private carson the road. But in the caseof diesel, consumption sec-tors like school buses andpublic transport were at avery subdued level. Industrysources said while the Indianeconomy has started to pickup with lockdown restric-tions being lifted since June,local lockdowns by stateshave hampered the demandquickly picking up.

Passenger vehicle sales in India rise 17 pc in Sept qtrPNS n NEW DELHI

Passenger vehicle wholesales inIndia increased by 17 per centin the second quarter of thecurrent fiscal year as buyingsentiment improved and com-panies stocked up to cater toenhanced demand in the festiveseason, auto industry bodySIAM said on Friday.

According to the latest databy the Society of IndianAutomobile Manufacturers(SIAM), passenger vehiclessales in the July-Septemberquarter increased to 7,26,232units from 6,20,620 units in thesame period last year.

Similarly, two-wheeler salesduring the September quarterthis fiscal rose marginally to46,90,565 units as comparedwith 46,82,571 units in thesame period last fiscal.

However, commercial vehi-cles sales saw a dip of 20.13 percent at 1,33,524 units in thequarter under review as com-pared with 1,67,173 units inJuly-September 2019.

It is the sixth consecutivequarter of sales degrowth in thecommercial vehicle segment.

Three-wheeler sales also wit-nessed 74.63 per cent dip insales during the period underreview at 45,902 units asagainst 1,80,899 units in theyear-ago period.

Vehicle sales across cate-gories during the second quar-ter declined marginally to55,96,223 units as against56,51,459 units in the sameperiod of the previous fiscal.

"In second quarter somesegments have shown signs ofrecovery. Passenger vehiclesand two-wheelers are positive,

although on a very low base ofprevious year," SIAM PresidentKenichi Ayukawa said.

He noted that most of theindustry segments like com-mercial vehicles and three-wheeler offtakes remained atpar or at lower state than sameperiod 5-6 years ago.

The industry, however,remained bullish on saleprospects in the festive season,Ayukawa said.

"We are expecting gooddemand in the festive seasonstarting tomorrow," he added.

He noted that the Indianautomotive industry is working

hard amidst this toughCOVID-19 situation toincrease production and sales,while ensuring the safety ofcustomers and employeesacross the whole value chain.

Ayukawa said low interestrate on auto loans (now lessthan 8 per cent) shouldencourage people to purchasenew vehicles.

He said that with the imple-mentation of the last set ofcrash safety standards from thismonth and BS-VI standardsearlier this year, India is nowalmost at par with Europe onsafety and emission standards.

The vehicle scrappage incen-tive scheme, which would helpremove old vehicles off roads,would help in fully realising thebenefits of BS-VI emissionregime, Ayukawa said.

He said that in line with gov-

ernment vision, the industrywould try to double vehicleexports from the country in thenext five years.

On sales forecast, Ayukawasaid that due to the coronaviruspandemic, it was difficult topredict the future beyond theend of this year.

Economic recovery andother related factors wouldhelp in generating the demand,he added. SIAM DirectorGeneral Rajesh Menon saidthat if numbers in the last fiveyears are compared then itshows industry volumes havegone below the 2016 level.

"In terms of volumes if youlook at quarterly and half year-ly comparisons and also tosome extent monthly compar-ison, we have gone below 2016in most of the segments," henoted.

DoT clamps down on illegalmobile network boosters in DelhiPNS n NEW DELHI

The Department of Telecom'swireless monitoring organisa-tion on Friday conducted raidsin South and South-West Delhito bring down illegal networkboosters which interfere withmobile services and result in calldrops and other quality issues,an official said.

The Wireless MonitoringOrganisation (WMO) has alsoissued notice to e-commercecompanies warning against thesale of network boosters with-out valid permit, the officialsaid.

"We got an assignment fromWMO regarding unauthorisedmobile boosters in East ofKailash, Sant Nagar and SouthWest. We have identified someunauthorised mobile boostersbut people are not aware thatinstalling them without a validpermit is illegal. We made themaware of it," G K Reddy, engi-neer-in-charge, international

monitoring station, WirelessMonitoring Organisation, toldPTI.

Telecom operators have com-plained to the Department ofTelecom that illegal mobileboosters are interfering withtheir network which is leadingto frequent calls drops, hamper-ing call connection etc.

According to industrysources, there were reports ofaround 3,000 illegal boostersworking in Delhi.

"We have been conductingraids for the last one year andhave removed around 400boosters so far. We have asked

people not to illegally instalboosters again and a notice isissued to them to refrain fromsuch illegal activity in future.We will also issue notice to ven-dors selling boosters withoutpermit," Reddy said.

The Wireless PlanningCommission under the DoThas in 2019 issued notice to e-commerce for selling networkboosters in an unauthorisedmanner.

The DoT on its websiteuploaded a public notice askingpeople to not instal unautho-rised mobile signal boosters.

"The general public isinformed that any person shallnot establish, maintain, work,process or deal in unauthorisedwireless transceiving apparatussuch as unauthorised mobilesignal boosters as it is punish-able offence as per the provi-sions of Indian WirelessTelegraphy Act 1933 and IndiaTelegraph Act 1885," the pub-lic notice said.

‘Uncertain pace of recovery inglobal auto demand may continue’PNS n NEW DELHI

Moody's Investors Service onFriday said the uncertain paceof recovery in global autodemand will continue to weighon Tata Motors Ltd (TML) andits wholly owned subsidiaryJaguar Land Rover AutomotivePlc over the next 12-18months.

However, the ratings agency,while keeping a negative out-look on the two firms, saidsupport from Tata Sons miti-gates operational challenges atTML and kept rating at thesame level as JLR — 'B1 neg-ative'. It further said electrifi-cation and political develop-ments pose further downsiderisk and will prolong recovery.

"We do not expect globalauto shipments to recover topre-pandemic levels until themiddle of the decade, whilefurther lockdowns, the transi-tion to electric vehicles, emis-sion compliance requirementsand – for JLR – Brexit all posefurther downside risk,"

Moody's Vice-President andSenior Credit Officer TobiasWagner said in a statement.

Moody's said, "TML'sunderlying credit profile hasdeteriorated to a level weakerthan JLR's but the ratingsremain the same, thanks to aone-notch uplift to reflect like-ly support from parent TataSons Ltd in times of need."

JLR's rating does not incor-porate an uplift for likely sup-port from parent TML due tothe latter's weaker credit qual-ity. Still, the subsidiary remainsstrategically important to bothTML and Tata Sons, a credit

positive for the rating, it added.Stating that it expects that

TML and JLR's financial met-rics will remain in breach ofrating downgrade triggers overthe next 12-18 months,Moody's said it implies that "asustained improvement inoperations is required to main-tain their current ratings".

For TML, a return in out-look to stable would require animprovement at JLR as the keycontributor to consolidatedcredit metrics, along with arecovery in the profitability ofTML's Indian operations, itadded.

Ather Energyties up withdealers PNS n MUMBAI

Electric vehicle startupAther Energy on Fridaysaid it has tied up withthree dealers in Mumbai,Pune and Ahmedabad to setup experience centres,ahead of the deliveries ofAther 450X electric scoot-er.

The Bengaluru-basedcompany has a lreadyannounced that Ather450X, its second offering inthe market, will be availableto customers in 10 cities --B engaluru, Chennai,Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune,Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kochi,Kolkata and Coimbatore.

Deliveries in these citieswill be made by the firstquarter of 2021 in a phasedmanner, according to AtherEnergy.

Cut-off time for equityMFs to be restoredPNS n NEW DELHI

Capital markets regulator Sebiwill restore the cut-off timingfor buying and selling ofequity mutual fund units to 3pm from Monday, accordingto industry body Amfi.

However, the existing trun-cated cut-off time would con-tinue for debt and conserva-tive hybrid funds.

In a tweet, Amfi ChairmanNilesh Shah said cut-off tim-ing for both subscription andredemption for all schemesother than those categorisedas debt schemes and conser-vative hybrid fund is beingrestored to original cut-offtiming of 3 pm, effective,October 19.

The move comes following

a request by the industrybody Association of MutualFunds in India (Amfi).

Earlier in April, Sebi hadreduced cut-off time for sub-scription and redemption ofmutual funds, including liq-uid and overnight schemesdue to coronavirus pandem-ic.

The regulator had reducedcut-off time for availing thesame day's net asset value(NAV) for mutual fundschemes to 1 pm from 3 pm.

For liquid and overnightfunds, the time was advancedto 12.30 pm from 1.30 pm.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) in April had reduceddebt and currency markethours permitting trades onlyfrom 10 am to 2 pm.

Sensex rebounds 254 ptsPNS n MUMBAI

Indian equities on Friday recov-ered from the massive lossessuffered in the previous session,with banking, metal and ITcounters leading the rally.

After fighting bouts of volatil-ity, the BSE Sensex closed254.57 points or 0.64 per centhigher at 39,982.98. Intra-day,the 30-share benchmark swungover 426 points, touching theday's peak at 40,125.71 and thelowest level at 39,700. The NSEgauge Nifty settled 82.10 points

or 0.70 per cent up at 11,762.45.On the Sensex chart, Tata Steel,HDFC Bank, Ultratech Cement,PowerGrid, ONGC, Kotak bankand Axis Bank were amongprominent gainers.

Of the 30 Sensex constituents,24 ended with gains. HCL Tech,Mahindra & Mahindra,Reliance Industries, AsianPaints, Nestle India and SunPharma suffered losses.

The rupee on Friday settledalmost flat at 73.35 against theUS dollar in the absence of anyfresh trigger.

UK fines BritishAirways for failuresin 2018 data hackPNS n LONDON

Britain's information com-missioner has fined BritishAirways 20 million pounds($25 million) for failing toprotect personal data forsome 400,000 customers, thelargest fine the agency hasever issued. The ICO said ina statement on Friday that theairline was processing per-sonal data without adequatesecurity measures. It alsonoted that it did not detect a2018 cyber attack for twomonths. InformationCommissioner ElizabethDenham said says BA's “fail-ure to act was unacceptableand affected hundreds ofthousands of people, whichmay have caused some anx-iety and distress as a result".

Under the EuropeanUnion's General DataProtection Rules imposed in2018, organisations face finesof up to 20 million euros ($23million).

Goa to focus on cluster devpt to generate jobsPNS n PANAJI

The Goa government willdevelop clusters as part of itsself-reliance programme togenerate employment andenhance revenue collection,the Chief Minister's Office(CMO) said on Friday.

Chief Minister PramodSawant held a review meetingof cluster development planunder the centrally-sponsored

Scheme of Fund forRegeneration ofT r a d i t i o n a lIndustries (SFUR-TI).

The CMO saidthe meeting heldon Thursday waspart of the govern-ments move torevive the state'seconomy under AatmanirbharBharat, Swayampoorna Goa

initiative.Briefing about the

meeting, the CMOtweeted ChiefM i n i s t e r@DrPramodPSawantheld a review meetingof ClusterDevelopment Plan for#AatmanirbharBharat#SwayampoornaGoa

under the scheme of Fund forRegeneration of Traditional

Industries (SFURTI) by theMinistry of MSME on October15."

Clusters will be developedwhich will lead to employmentgeneration, revenue enhance-ment and sustainable economyby promoting local artisans,farmers, self-help groups etc byproviding them common facil-ity centres to facilitate process-ing of agricultural and otherproduce, the CMO added.

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

SaturdayOctober 17, 2020

r AjaiKumar isone of thepioneers inthe PR sec-tor in India

and stands among thetop 10 PRs in thecountry. Mr Agarwal,who hails UttarPradesh, had the urgeto come to Hyderabadever since his child-hood. He tells us, “Iwas very crazy tocome to Hyderabad.When I was a child, Iheard about a clocktower here and I wascrazy ever since tocome to this place.Whatever I am today,it’s because ofHyderabad. This is theheart of the country,because of its mixedculture. If you are pro-active, you can dowonders here. Peopleare very supportive.”

There is anothermajor reason for MrAgarwal to be headover heels in love withthis place. MrAgarwal, who wastransferred toHyderabad in 1984,received a nationalaward in 1986, for hiswork here. Sharing thesuccess story of hislate wife, Madhu

Agarwal, in the city ofHyderabad, He says,“After we moved here,my wife learned abeautician course, andshe set up a parlour-cum-salon in ourhouse in Banjara Hills.Within a short span,she rose to fame, andwell-known peoplestarted coming to herparlour, including MrPV Narasimha Rao’sdaughter and daugh-ter-in-law.”

He continues,“Later, she set up abigger parlour inSrinagar Colony. InHyderabad, my wifegrew exponentially inthe field of beauty.Being a North Indian,and not knowing thelocal language, shegrew to such an extentwhere she startedwriting articles forEenadu, a Telugudaily.”

Despite beingoffered good promo-tions and packages,Mr Agarwal wasreluctant to leave thisplace becauseHyderabad became apart and parcel ofthem and that his wifewas well establishedhere and was earning3x times more than

him. “We are a familyof four and we are allachievers,” he saidexplaining, “It’s notjust my wife whostarted a business hereand gained fame. Myson, Ketan Agarwal,too decided to get intoentrepreneurship andestablished Fat Pigeonand Chubby Cho, oneof the most happeningplaces in Hyderabad.Initially, we were hesi-tant when my sonwanted to get into thisbusiness, but this cityis so happening with abustling crowd, hisventure into bar hop isa big success and nowthere is no lookingback.”

In his four-decade-long stay here, MrAgarwal has manyfond memories, shar-ing some of them, hesays, “I was a part ofthe 400 years celebra-tions of Hyderabad in1991. I received theIndira GandhiNational recognitionaward. When IreachedSecunderabad, I firstvisited Hussainsagar. Itwas so serene andbeautiful. Back then itwas not a city, it was abeautiful ‘village’.”

Expressing his lovefor the city, he said,“People here are veryloving and supportive.Hyderabad has theGanga-Jamunatehzeeb, a mixed cul-ture, which is notfound anywhere in thecountry. When I cameto Hyderabad, riotswere going on. I camehere with just onesuitcase and was wor-ried about where to goand what to do, butone of my neighbourstook me around andshowed the city to me.I have been successfulhere and I don’t wantto die unheard.”

What is Hyderabadto Mr Agarwal? Hetells us, “For meHyderabad is every-thing. My family and Isettled here. My son,my wife, and I made aname for ourselveshere. I now have ahome here.” He con-cludes with a fewHyderabadi Deccaniwords he loves themost, “Hyderabad isthe city of Nawabs, & Kebabs, Biryani and Sherwani, Pearlsand Paigahs, Haleemand Arches, Minaretsand modern build-ings.”

HY

D M

AD

E M

EW

HAT

I A

M T

OD

AY

D

Dr Ajai Kumar Agarwal, VP, Corporate Relations, the CBSL groupof companies, brings with him almost 37 years of rich experience inBanking. He was heading corporate communications of the Central

Bank of India and is an advisor of the SME Chamber of India. Arecipient of Dr KR Singh Memorial Lifetime Achievement at the

National level in the field of Public relations, Mr Ajai talks to K RAMYA SREE about his association with Hyderabad, the bond

he and his family share with the city, and more.

Popcorn, cars & face masksiss the masswhistling at theentry of a hero,enjoying popcornwith some intervalchitchat? How

about jumping into your carsand making a trip to the near-est drive-in cinema for aunique experience? But do wehave a drive-in cinema inHyderabad? Oh yes, it’s timefor you to pick up your fami-ly/friends/partners, park upand watch your favouritemovie while being seated inyour cars, presented to you byStarlit Cinemas at HitexHyderabad rolling soon dur-ing Dussera!

By the time drive-in cine-mas became a cultural phe-nomenon, the novelty ofwatching movies outdoorshad long been established andit’s amazing to see that it hasreached the city of Hyderabadnow. The car is going to beyour star! In the unprecedent-ed times of home streamingservices Shreekavithaa, aproduct manager from a NewYork MNC found the perfectreason to get out of the house

and hit the road. “I havewatched cars and cinemashaving this entertaining expe-rience outside India and thislockdown was making mesulk. Amid the pandemicwhere everyone is practicingsocial distancing, theatresbeing shut, and OTT releasingnew blockbuster movies, Iwanted to have some ‘metime’ with proper precautions!I thought about a drive-in cin-ema, I googled and to my sur-prise, we had none in our city.Hence, the idea to make onehappen,” shares the sole pro-prietor of this amusing inven-tion in the city!

Shreekavithaa furthershares that the thriving busi-ness of Tollywood cinema isproof that people will still likethe community spirit ofwatching movies like this now,in comparison with a stan-dardised multiplex experi-ence. The moment they brokethe big news, their emails andsocial media handles werecrashed due to excessivequeries from every nook andcorner of Hyderabad by peo-ple who wanted to be a part of

this unique cinematic experi-ence. “The revival of drive-incinemas in Hyderabad willepitomise this trend callingmore car enthusiasts. It’s like afamily picnic on its own or aperfect date night,” she adds.

So keep an eye for ‘StarlitCinemas’ drive-in screeningnear you with some great fun,nostalgia, and safety measuresamid the pandemic!

Of the many things thepandemic has made usmiss, Cinema is one ofthose biggest ones. We

miss the craze thatcomes with watching ourfavourite actor's first day,

first show. Even thoughtheatres are now opening

slowly, people are stillapprehensive. Here's

where drive-in cinemascome to the rescue.

SHIKHA DUGGAL writesabout the city's first such

experience. Read on...

M

Fashion inspirationfrom eras bygone

esigner SiddarthaTytler launchedhis collection onday 2 of the ongo-ing digital LotusMake-up India

Fashion WeekSpring/Summer21 via a fash-ion film streamed acrosssocial media handles of theFashion Design Council ofIndia.

Tytler showcased a line ofwestern drapes and tradi-tional wear for both men andwomen. Using bold coloursand sharp to make a strongstatement tempered with softfabrics like cotton, malmal,linens, crepes, wool and silks.The ensembles also featuredleather and suede, signaturecrystal embellishments andapplique work; he describedhis clothes as made for some-one who is “confident, inde-pendent and doesn’t allowothers to dictate his or herfashion choices”.

“The ideal Siddartha Tytlerpatron is one who is veryconfident, independent anddoesn’t allow others to dic-tate his or her fashion choic-es. It is someone who is com-fortable in their own skinand can make a mark withtheir personality every singletime,” says the designer.

Designer duo Gauri &Nainika played with a varietyof prints in their SS’21 collec-tion. Featuring Victorianinspired florals and Dutchinspired delft print in leaf-green colours. The lineincludes a range of wartimeinspired demure pencildresses, wrap dresses andshirt dresses in a palette ofscarlet red, bottle green andclassic black. Th easy to wear,flowy crepe dresses, feminineberry coloured hand paintedpolka dots and striped printsbrighten up your mood aftermonths of home shelteringand lockdown. Floral printed

tulle has been used in floorlength gowns with sweepingcape sleeves.

The duo said, “The collec-tion is also an ode to ourclients, the Gauri & Nainikawoman, who have identifiedwith our brand over the yearsand keeping what they haveloved in mind, we have triedto create and reimagine stylesthat been their favourites.”

Paying an ode to the glam-our of Indian Cinema of the60s and 70s, designer RaviBajaj's collection draws inspi-

ration from yesteryear starslike Shammi Kapoor, RajeshKhanna, Helen, SharmilaTagore, Vyjayanthimala amo-ng others. The designer pre-sented a musical video whichfeatured some of the iconicBollywood songs of the era.

Bajaj gives a modern twistto his collection for bothmen and women which com-prise of pant suits withplunging neckline, sareesteamed with embellishedblouses, bandhgalas, Nehrujackets and sherwanis.

D

Shreekavithaa

10

Hyderabad Saturday October 17 2020

PARTY

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

Photos by SV Chary

what’s brewing?

STUDIOLAUNCH

In some great news for Mi-phone users, anexclusive Mi-Studio was unveiled at Banjara

Hills. The studio offers a premium brandexperience to Mi Fans and consumers withaccess to their recently launched premium

products like Mi 10 in smartphones, MiNotebooks, Mi TVs, Mi band 5, Mi

Watch Revolve, etc.

l K

ritya

l Srinivas and Sikandar

l Neha

l Jenny Honeyl Laya

l Sravani

l V

aaks

hi

ctors Dia Mirza and Sonu Soodwill co-host a three-part docu-mentary, Bharat Ke Mahaveer,which will showcase peoplewho exhibited remarkablekindness during the Covid cri-

sis. “Over the past few months, India hasshown the world that when people cometogether, they can overcome any adversity.Instead of self-interest, we have seen an out-pouring of solidarity during the pandemic,”Dia said.

To this, Sonu added, “The recenttime has been painful for human-ity. During this time, some indi-viduals with an extraordinarysense of empathy for fellow citi-zens gave away everything theyhad. The Almighty has beenbenevolent to me, and hasgiven me means to help others,and I tried in my small way, butsome of the stories I read are ofindividuals with limited means,who with their strong willmoved mountains. The worldwill know about these heroesthrough Bharat Ke Mahaveer.”

The United Nations in India andNITI Aayog, in partnership withDiscovery channel, launches#BharatKeMahaveer, which will cele-brate Indians who have shown extra-ordinary kindness. The three-partseries is part of the campaign andwill bring 12 stories as representativeof the spirit of solidarity in the coun-try. Bharat Ke Mahaveer will com-mence with phase 1 in November onDiscovery channel, and DiscoveryPlus app.

Sonu Sood, Dia Mirza, to co-host Bharat Ke Mahaveer

A

hile his film with NandamuriBalakrishna has gone on to setsbefore the lockdown, directorBoyapati Sreenu hasn’t revealedthe other cast details. Now, itlooks like he has finalised one

actress and as promised he islaunching a new girl in Telugu.According to reports, he haspicked Malayalam actressPrayaga Rose Martin, who roseto prominence with the Tamilfilm Pisaasu, to play a key role.She will be cast alongsideyounger Balayya, it is said. Themakers, however, are yet tomake the casting official.

In the action-entertainer withan underlying social message,

Balayya will be seen in dual roles— of which one role is that of an

aghora. Expectations are high onthis untitled film as it marks the

reteaming up of the actor andBoyapati after successful ventures likeSimha and Legend in the past.Produced by M Ravinder Reddy, thefilm has music by Thaman. The filmis yet to resume after the shoot wassuspended in March.

fter graduating tofeature films fromshort films,ChandiniChowdary hasbeen part of films

like Howrah Bridge,Kundanapu Bomma,Ketugadu and others but abreakthrough eluded herdespite her potential. Sheadmits that in the beginningphase of her career, herchoices were dictated toplease a certain section,which didn’t benefit anyone.Now, her thought-processhas undergone a sea change.“After 2016, I started accept-ing stories that I like. Theproject needs to be a betterone than my earlier one andas an actor I want to see animprovement in my craft,”she says.

The Vizag girl is right nowlooking forward to the

release of Colour Photo,which drops on aha shortly.The film, set in ’90s back-drop, addresses the discrimi-nation on the basis of colour,class and caste issues, asromance plays out betweencharacters played by her andSuhas. “I know directorSandeep as he comes from ashort film background. Hemet me with the film’s storylast October, feeling that Iwas tailor-made for the hero-ine’s role. Post the narration,I found the story to be won-derful. He had great clarityover the script and the wayhe wanted to approach it. Iimmediately said yes,” sherecalls, adding that commer-cial equations have changedin the industry. “The morerealistic a story is, the betterit performs. I want to be apart of cinema that I’d like towatch in theatres.”

In the film, she plays anupper middle-class and beau-tiful woman who makesunconventional choices. Shedidn’t need to go too far forthe prep, saying that shegrilled her family to get anunderstanding of girls of the’90s. “My mother is anextremely independentwoman, so it was easy to geta hang of the character’smindset. From my looks to

body language to the way Ispoke, the role needed ashift. During the dubbing Iwas surprised to see my per-formance. In particular ascene left me in tears. It wasa feeling of great satisfaction,”she points out with glee.

Right now, she is shootingfor Sudheer Varma’s pro-duction venture, a darkcrime thriller that dealswith hawala rackets. “Therole is in stark contrastto what I played inColour Photo. It’s aconscious effortfrom my end toassociate withdistinct rolesfrom now on.Then there isGaami, anadventuredrama withVishwakSen. It is 90percentover andwe’ve shotin theHimalayas.There is also alove story on thecards. I becamechoosy right now,”she signs off.

11

Hyderabad Saturday October 17 2020tollywood

CHANDINI in a happyand comfortable space

“After 2016, I started

acceptingstories that I

like. As an actorI want to see an

improvementin my craft,”

the Vizag lad tells

NAGARAJGOUD

A

DimpleHayathi toromanceRavi Teja

n a new development, actressDimple Hayathi has been signed onas one of the leading ladies inRamesh Varma’s next, an action-thriller, with Mass Maharaja RaviTeja. While Anu Emmanuel was the

first choice, it seems the makers have had achange of heart.

The director confirmed the developmentwhen The Pioneer rang him. “Dimple Hayathiwill be seen as a village belle who comes to thecity. I was on the lookout for a typical villagegirl who is also modern. Also, I needed a gooddancer. I found all these qualities in Dimple,”Ramesh said and added that he liked the wayDimple grooved to Zara zara from Valmiki.

With his leading light set toplay dual roles in the film,Ramesh said Dimple ispaired opposite“innocent and mid-dle-class Ravi Teja”.

To be launchedon Sunday, thefilm’s shoot willkick-off inHyderabad inNovember.Ramesh added thathe is planning towrap up the filmin a start-to-finishschedule of 110days. EducationalistKoneru Satyanarayanais producing it underA Studios. — NG

I

Venky tonarrateMosagallu

t looks like ManchuVishnu is keen on grab-bing maximum eyeballswith his ambitious next,Mosagallu, before itopens in cinemas. After

getting Allu Arjun to unveila glimpse of the film earlierthis month, Vishnu has man-aged to get the help ofVenkatesh again. The senioractor, last month, unveiledthe motion poster of thefilm. Extending his supportto the film further, he nowagreed to give his voice-over.He will narrate the film’sstory from start to end. “Themakers wanted a star hero togive voice for the film andwhen approached, Venkateshhappily gave his nod,” read apress statement from thefilm’s team on Friday.

“I thank one of the coolestperson I know Victory@venkymama for lending hisvoice for #Mosagallu. Thankyou Thank you Thank you(sic),” wrote Vishnu onTwitter. Venky replied,“Always happy to work withyou.”

Inspired by Rs 2,800 croreheist, which led to tremors inthe entire IT world inMumbai some seven years,the film — a Telugu, Tamiland Hindi trilingual-directedby Jeffrey Chin is a joint pro-duction venture between ViaMar Entertainment, AVAEntertainment and 24Frames Factory.

Shot in Hyderabad,Tirupati and Los Angeles,the film boasts of a stellarsupporting cast comprisingKajal Aggarwal, NaveenChandra, Navdeep andSuniel Shetty.

I

Apsari Rani's itemsong in Krack

he makers of RaviTeja-starrer Krackhave roped in RamGopal Varma’s findApsara Rani for afoot-tapping item

number in the film. Thesong’s shoot is presentlygoing on at AnnapurnaStudios, Hyderabad.Penned by RamajogayyaShastri, Jaani is choreo-graphing it on Ravi andApsara in a specially erect-ed pub set.

“A Kiirrack mass itemsong on the way with ourvery own Mass Maharaja@RaviTeja_offl’s #KrackLoving the Full-on ener-getic vibes on the set (sic),”Jaani wrote on Twitter onFriday.

With the completion ofthis song, Krack shoot willcome to an end.

An intense action thriller,the film marks Ravi anddirector GopichandMalineni teaming up afterhits Don Sreenu andBalupu. Inspired by inci-dents that transpired inboth the Telugu states, ittells the story of a powerfulpolice officer P VeeraShankar (played by RaviTeja) and will have all ele-ments that one expectsfrom the actor’s film.

Shruti Haasan is castopposite Ravi Teja in thefilm, while the likes ofSamuthirakani,Varalakshmi Sarath Kumar,Devi Prasad, PujitaPonnada and Chirag Janiare playing supportingroles. A production venture of Tagore Madhuunder Saraswathi FilmsDivision, the film is beingplanned for a Sankrantirelease.

T

Prayaga Martin inBalayya’s film?

W

The three-time champions will lookto build on the win over SRH as the leaguephase moves towards the business end.

However, they are up against a teamwhich is high on confidence and well-served by the South African pace duo ofKagiso Rabada and AnrichNortje.

Add the wily RAshwin and Axar Patel tothe mix and DC has arather impressivebowling unit.

Pacer TusharDeshpande, whomade a memo-rable debut inthe win overthe Royals,adds teeth tothe attack.

PTI

a stiff test awaits Chennai SuperKings when they face a dominantDelhi Capitals here on Saturday.

Every tactic that Dhoniemployed againstSunrisers Hyderabad,worked, and they areexpected to continuein the same vein asthey battle to salvagethe season.

Whether it was promotingSam Curran to the opener’s slotor finishing pacer DeepakChahar’s quota upfront whileusing seven bowlers to dry upruns, every move produced

desired result.Dhoni used leg spinner

Piyush Chawla for only one overand that too as late as in the 16th

over, leaving it largely onRavindra Jadeja andKarn Sharma but CSKare likely to continuewith three spinners con-sidering that the Sharjah

wickets are now getting slower.That spinners hold the key in

Sharjah was evident in the lasttwo games where RCB and KingsXI Punjab slow bowlers wereinstrumental in their respectiveteam’s wins.

KL Rahul 448 runs

Kagiso Rabada 18 wickets

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 17, 2020

12

MOTION PICTURE

DUGOUTChris (Gayle) coming back,gives a lot of energy to the side.We did not lose spirit evenwhen we were losing. We wereplaying good cricket and it'sjust about getting over the line

Things are looking good atthis stage of the season, butI am never the one to try andlook too far ahead because Iknow how quickly the IPLcan turn around

To me, Chris is the greatestT20 player. When he isbatting, you always feel youhave a chance of winning thegame. Once he is there, it's adifferent mood in the camp

We've been in this situationand before and have comeback from this, so we're notpanicking about this, weknow it can be done and Ibelieve in this team to do it

TODAY

STAR SSPORTS 11

Live from 3:30pm Live from 7:30pm

VS VS

POINTS TABLEP W L NRR PTS

1 MI 8 6 2 +1.353 12

2 DC 8 6 2 +0.990 12

3 RCB 8 5 3 -0.139 10

4 KKR 8 4 4 -0.684 8

5 SRH 8 3 5 +0.009 6

6 CSK 8 3 5 -0.390 6

7 RR 8 3 5 -0.844 6

8 KXIP 8 2 6 -0.295 4

SMITH REMAINS CAPTAIN AFTER RUMOURRajasthan Royals on Friday seem to have inadvertentlysparked a rumour of a change in captains beforeclarifying that Steve Smith remains skipper of the team.RR first posted a meme featuring their star wicket-keeper-batsman Jos Buttler based on the populartelevision show The Office. “Thankful for a boss likeJos,” the team said in a tweet. That led to many onsocial media to speculate on whether Buttler is going toreplace Smith as captain. Their tweet came just hoursafter Buttler's England team mate and captain EoinMorgan replaced Dinesh Karthik as skipper at KKR.RR, however, later indicated that it was an attempt athumour that ended up sparking the rumour about thecaptaincy change. “When admin realises he started afalse rumour,” tweeted the franchise with anothermeme based on The Office before tweeting Smith'spicture with the caption “Captain” with a heart emojee.

AFP n LONDON

Wimbledon isset to go

ahead next yeareven if the GrandSlam tournament has to be stagedbehind closed doors, organisersannounced on Friday.

The grasscourt championshipswere cancelled this year for the firsttime since World War II becauseof the coronavirus pandemic.

The organisers said in a state-ment that they are planning fornext year’s championships andare considering multiple opera-tional scenarios at this point intime, given that there is still timefor the next year’s edition.

“Staging the championships in2021 is our number-one priorityand we are actively engaged in sce-nario-planning in order to deliv-er on that priority,” chief executiveSally Bolton was quoted as saying.

The All England Club is plan-ning for several scenarios for2021 — a full-capacity event,reduced-capacity tournament orholding it with no fans present.The 134th championships will bestaged from June 28 to July 11,2021.

PTI n DUBAI

Royal ChallengersBangalore would aim to

get their strategy right aftersome inexplicable decisionsduring the loss to Kings XIPunjab when they take on ane r r a t i c - b u t - d a u n t l e s sRajasthan Royals onSaturday.

The Virat Kohli-led RCBhas won five of its eightgames on the back of all-round performances butseemingly blundered in theeight-wicket defeat to lag-gards KXIP on Thursday.

On the other hand, theRoyals’ campaign this seasonhas been marred by numer-ous top-order collapses, forc-ing the lower half to pullthem across the finish lineand thet lie at the seventhspot in the points table withjust three wins from eightoutings.

Against KXIP inSharjah, AB De Villiers, whohas been in fine form,was sent in to bat atnumber six, a baf-fling decision by theRCB.

Left-handerWashingtonS u n d a r(13) andS h i v a mD u b e( 2 3 )w e r epromot-ed up theorder toaccompanyskipper Kohliin the mid-dle.

T h eexperimentdidn’t work asall three bats-men strug-gled with

the South African scoringjust two off five balls.

To add to RCB’s woes,while defending the total,Kohli decided to save the in-form Sundar for the big-hit-ting Chris Gayle, who cameto bat in the eighth over.That gamble didn’t pay offeither as the 41-year-oldJamaican smashed the youngoff-spinner for four sixes.

Meanwhile, the Royalsboast of a strong battingline-up. But the likes of SteveSmith, and Sanju Samsonhave failed to score since thetwo victories in Sharjah atthe beginning of the tourna-ment.

Jos Buttler too has beenunable to capitalise on hisstarts, scoring just one half-century in seven innings.

After failing in his firstmatch of the season, BenStokes, who has been elevat-ed to the role of an opener,hit 41 before he was run outagainst the Delhi Capitals.

The inaugural seasonchampions have relied on

Rahul Tewatia to rescuethem from precariouspositions and the all-

rounder managed to dothat twice against KXIPand Sunrisers

Hyderabad respective-ly. But he failed againstthe Capitals when yet

again the top-orderbotched an easyrun-chase.

Jofra Archerspearheads theR a j a s t h a nbowling unit,along with thespin duo of

Tewatia andShreyas Gopal, who have

consistently figured in anXI that has gone through alot of chopping and chang-ing.

PLAY BETTER IN ‘TOUGHER’ 2ND HALFDelhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting believes thatplaying well in the second half of IPL will be a biggerchallenge as the tracks in the UAE will get slower.Citing as example their win against Rajasthan Royalslast Wednesday, he said any score in the region of 160could prove to be a good total. “One thing I have beentelling the boys right from the start of this tournamentis that I want us playing our best cricket in the backhalf of the tournament, not necessarily in the front halfof the tournament,” Ponting said.

INCREDIBLY SELFLESS ACTKKR new skipper Eoin Morgan on Friday hailed DineshKarthik's decision to step down as captain of the IPLside as an “incredibly selfless” act of putting the teamahead of an individual. “Yes, I was surprised as waseverybody. Yesterday, DK informed he want to step backand focus on his batting as he feels that is the bestoption for the team,” Morgan said in an interview withDarren Ganga. “I think it is incredibly selfless and thatalso shows a lot of courage from him to do that, puttingthe team first ahead of him being the skipper.”

PTI n ABU DHABI

Pace spearhead Pat Cumminsstruck an invaluable 36-ball53 to lift Kolkata Knight

Riders from a hopeless situationto a respectable 148 for fiveagainst Mumbai Indians in theirIPL match here on Friday.

After a top-order failure, itwas Cummins (5x4;2x6) and newskipper Eoin Morgan (39 not outoff 29 balls; 2x4; 2x6), who con-jured 87 runs for the unbrokensixth wicket, to pull the team outof trouble.

Opting to bat, Kolkata lostopener Rahul Tripathi (7) early,courtesy a sensational catch bySuryakumar Yadav at point, in thethird over off Trent Boult (1/32).

It became 33 for two as NitishRana (5) perished cheaply after hewas caught by Quinton De Kockoff Nathan Coulter-Nile (1/51) asa short ball worked for theAustralian pacer in the sixth over.

Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar(2/18) struck twice in the eightover, removing the youngShubham Gill (21) and DineshKarthik (4) off successive ballsand reduced Kolkata to to 42 forfour.

While Gill holed out toKieron Pollard at long-on in anattempt to accelerate the run-rate,Karthik played onto the stumps atthe Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

KKR lost half their side for 61as Andre Russell perished for 12.A bouncer from Jasprit Bumrah

(1/22) did the trick as Russelllobbed off a sitter to de Kock.

Cummins smashed NathanCoulter-Nile for two fours and amaximum in the 13th over, whichfetched KKR 16 runs and then

made optimum use of a life he got.Cummins and Morgan added

53 in the last five overs, and theywere particularly brutal againstCoulter-Nile, who leaked 51 runsin his four overs.

AFP n LIVERPOOL

Jurgen Klopp has praisedEverton’s ‘perfect summer’

of recruitment ahead ofLiverpool’s trip to face theleague leaders in theMerseyside derby this weekend.

Liverpool travel the shortdistance across Stanley Park toface their city rivals atGoodison Park on Saturdaylunchtime in what shapes asone of the most intriguingderby clashes in recent seasons,Everton heading into the clashin confident mood after win-ning each of their four fixturesto sit top of the division.

The club have backed man-ager Carlo Ancelotti in thetransfer market with a numberof exciting additions and Klopphas praised the Italian and the‘perfect business’ conducted byEverton during the summerwindow, believing the Toffeeshave signed the ideal players totake them to the next level.

“What I think about CarloAncelotti was never a secret. Icouldn’t respect him more. He’sa wonderful human being,”Klopp told the BBC.

“When I heard he wasgoing to sign for Everton Ithought ‘Uhhh, the next prop-er challenger in line’.

“They did the perfect busi-ness in the summer. Theyfound exactly the players thatthey needed to improve analready pretty good footballteam.

“Together, getting moreused to what Carlo wants themto do makes them a prettystrong team.”

Key to Everton’s success hasalso been the improved formof Dominic Calvert-Lewin,the forward currently thejoint-leading scorer in thePremier League following aprolific start to the season.

The 23-year-old’simproved performancesalso saw him earn a firstcall-up to the England squadduring the internationalbreak — scoring on his seniordebut against Wales — andKlopp is well aware of thethreat posed by the in-form star

and a new-look forward linecontaining the likes ofRicharlison and JamesRodriguez.

“Calvert-Lewin, I reallyexpected him to make big stepsin the next few years and hedid,” said Klopp.

“He has everything youneed in a top striker: size,mobility, speed, desire, techni-cally really, really good, in theair, finishing with his head,both feet.

“And now it all workstogether — both wings havetop-class players with Jamesand Richarlison. Midfield,Allan plus whoever plays there,if it’s Sigurdsson or whoever.

“So it’s a really, really goodteam and the last line worksbetter because in a good teamit’s easier to defend. That’s whatyou see when you watchEverton, so it will be a reallyinteresting game.”

BRUYNE RRULED OOUTManchester: Manchester Citymanager Pep Guardiola hasconfirmed that Kevin deBruyne will miss Saturday’sPremier League clash againstArsenal.

Guardiola has now con-firmed those injury fears,claiming he could miss “maybe

a few games”on top of theArsenal fix-ture.

PTI n KALYANI

Putting their off-the-fieldcontroversy behind,

Mohammedan Sporting onFriday clinched an I-Leagueberth after seven years with a2-0 win over city rivalsBhawanipore FC in the qual-ifiers here.

Vanlalbiaa Chhangte (28thminute) and Gani AhmmedNigam (67th) struck on eitherside of half-time to win thematch. With threewins on the trot,the Black Panthersnow have an unas-sailable lead ofnine points over their nearestrivals to seal the lone I-Leaguespot with a round to spare.

In an inconsequential finalround match on October 19,Mohammedan Sporting willface FC Bengaluru United,followed by the match betweenARA FC and BhawaniporeFC.

The 131-year-old club willthus become the lone Kolkatateam in the I-League to beplayed entirely in West Bengalin the absence of MohunBagan and East Bengal whohave joined the top-tier IndianSuper League.

The I-League is likely tostart in December.

Mohammedan Sporting

last played the I-League in2013-14 but only to be relegat-ed the same season.

In the first match onFriday, Garhwal FC looked setto sign off their I-LeagueQualifiers campaign with awin but ended up having toshare points with ARA FC.

Defender Neeraj Bhandarigave his team an early lead buta late penalty from SurajitSeal saw both teams walk offthe f ield at the Kalyani

Stadium with hon-ours even.

MohammedanSporting hadcourted controver-

sy with the sacking of headcoach Yan Law, who wasalleged by the club brass ofleaking personal conversation.

The club had also lodgedpolice complaints against Lawon charges of disclosing teaminformation to "outsider"Ranjit Bajaj, the former ownerof Punjab FC.

Under Law, they had ascrappy 1-0 win over theDelhi-based Garhwal FC,courtesy of an injury-timegoal from Mumnmun Lugun.

In the next match, theteam made wholesale changesunder an interim coach andsecured a thumping 4-1 winover ARA FC.

CSK brace up for DC challenge

Eng could tour Pakistan in 2021

MATCHES 22

DELHI CAPITALS 07

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS 15

Stats: Faisel FFeatures

Klopp praises Everton’s‘perfect’ business SHARJAH : Their campaign is back

on track, courtesy MahendraSingh Dhoni’s smart captaincy but

Wimbledon plansreturn in 2021, withor without fans

PCB invites 50-over World Champions forthree-match T20 series in Jan next yearAFP n LONDON

England could tourPakistan for the first time

in over a decade after officialsconfirmed they had receivedan invitation to visit theAsian giants early in 2021 fora “short white-ball series”.

Fifty-over world champi-ons England have not playedin Pakistan since 2005/06.

An attack by armed mil-itants on Sri Lanka’s team busin Lahore in 2009 endedmajor cricket tours for adecade. But Sri Lanka,Zimbabwe, West Indies andBangladesh have all sincemade the trip.

An England and WalesCricket Board statementissued on Thursday said:“After discussions with thePakistan Cricket Board, wecan confirm the Englandand Wales Cricket Board hasreceived an invitation inrespect of a short white-balltour to Pakistan during theearly part of 2021.

“We welcome the factthat international cricket isreturning to Pakistan and arecommitted to doing what

we can to help this developfurther.”

The statement added that“the safety and welfare of ourplayers and staff is para-mount”, with security issuesand the development ofCovid-19 secure ‘bubbles’ ofthe kind pioneered inEngland this year among theECB’s key concerns.

“We will be liaising withthe PCB, and as well as otherpartners over the comingweeks to work through theseconsiderations, before a finaldecision will be taken in duecourse,” the ECB said.

Although the ECB didnot specify any dates, WasimKhan, chief executive of thePCB said: “Yes, we have nowsent an official invitation tothe ECB inviting them tosend their team and have alsocreated a window between 13and 20 January to play thethree T20 series," Khan tolda Pakistani channel. “They(the ECB) will consider it (theinvitation) and have a secu-rity assessment. “It will be avery important tour and helpimprove our credibility as ahost,” he added.

Mohammedan Sporting

return to I-League

Howrah Bridge toget Bagan's green-maroon illuminationfor I-League triumphPTI n KOLKATA

The iconic Howrah Bridge willbe illuminated with tradition-

al green and maroon lights onSunday and Monday evenings tocelebrate Mohun Bagan's 2019-20I-League triumph, the club said onFriday.

“The bridge will be illuminat-ed from 6.30 pm to 10 pm to com-memorate the success of I-Leaguechampions Mohun Bagan. Wesincerely thank the chairman ofSyama Prasad Mukherjee PortTrust and all who are involved forhonoring us,” the club stated.

"Further, club presidentSwapan Sadhan Bose will alsounveil a champions plaque duringthe trophy handing ceremonyand the plaque will be installed atthe club later," the club stated.

Mohun Bagan had downedformer champions Aizawl FC 1-0 to clinch the I-League with fourrounds to spare on March 10 butthe celebrations had to waitbecause of the COVID-19 pan-demic.

The AIFF will hand over theI-League trophy to the club mem-bers at a five-star hotel which willbe followed by a victory proces-sion to the club tent in the Maidan.

The coveted trophy would beplaced in a glass cascade in anopen van and the processionwould traverse through importantlandmarks of the city. The club willalso float four sky balloons withbranding of I-League Trophy inHowrah, Dharamatala,Deshapriya Park and Hedua-Vivekananda Road, the club stat-ed. The club will arrange a videocall with their I-League winningcoaches and players who will notbe able to present physicallybecause of the pandemic. Theentire programme will bestreamed live on their officialFacebook page.

RCB look toget tactics right

KKR 148/5 (20 overs); MI 149/2 (16.5 overs)

MI regain top spot

Pat Cummins and Eoin Morgan run between wickets during KKR innings IPLT20.com

PTI n ABU DHABI

Wi c k e t k e e p e r- b a t s m a nDinesh Karthik on Friday

stepped down as captain of theKolkata Knight Riders team,handing over the reins to hisEnglish deputy Eoin Morganhours before the IPL matchagainst Mumbai Indians

Karthik told the KKR man-agement that he wants to “focuson his batting and contributingmore to the team’s cause.”Appointed skipper in 2018, the 35-year-old led KKR in 37 matches.

“We are fortunate to haveleaders such as DK, who hasalways put the team first. It takesa lot of courage for someone likehim to take a decision such asthis,” team CEO Venky Mysoresaid in a statement.

“While we were surprised byhis decision, we are respectful ofhis wishes.”

Midway into the ongoing sea-son, KKR find themselves atfourth place in the points tablewith four wins and four losses.Morgan was widely tipped totake over at some point fromKarthik given the topsy-turvyrun.

“...DK and Eoin have workedbrilliantly together during thistournament and although Eointakes over as captain, this is effec-tively a role swap and we expectthat this transition will work in aseamless manner,” Mysore said.

Even though Mysore termedKarthik’s decision surprising, themove was always on the cards witha World Cup-winning captain inthe mix.

The veteran Indian wicket-keeper-batsman’s captaincy hadcome under intense criticismdue to the team’s erratic cam-paign so far.

Karthik’s own battig has beenpretty scratchy save the half-cen-tury against KXIP which also gothim the man-of-the matchaward.

Strategically, he hasn’t beenat his best like the match againstDelhi Capitals at Sharjah wherehe promoted himself ahead ofMorgan, who is a bigger match-winner currently and also near-ly got the team home.

DK pass the baton to Morgan